How a group of “forward-thinking” brothers came together to establish what is now known as The Islamic Center of Puget Sound (ICOPS)
By The ICOPS Board
The Islamic Center of Puget Sound (ICOPS) came into existence in April of 2012, to fulfill a growing need of the Muslim community in the Greater Seattle area, to have a place of worship as well as a learning center to teach our children the Islamic religion, and to develop them spiritually and morally. At that time, very few masjids were available to provide such essential services.
The few masjids that were available did not have the capacity to manage the growing number of congregants. So many of the congregants used to pray Jumu’ah prayers outside generally in the cold or rain due to lack of accommodations inside the prayer halls. Others used to miss the prayers completely because the parking lots at these sites were not adequate to park the cars of all the congregants. As for those congregants who would park their cars on the streets in residential areas quite often created problems for the residents in those areas that threatens those Masjid closures. As the community around ICOPS Masjid continued to grow, the need became real as so many parents struggled to find a place to register their kids to learn the Qur’an and other aspects of our Islamic religion. During Ramadan and on Eid prayers, so many of the community members would travel long distances to attend the few overcrowded Masjids. Conducting naming ceremonies and Jannazah congregational prayers became a challenge.
In seeing and understanding all the above-stated challenges, these brothers wasted no time in coming together to address these important needs of the community. They roll their sleeves up and went to work in a bid to establish what is now known as The Islamic Center of Puget Sound (ICOPS) Masjid.
After a series of informal meetings, a board was set up, and the ICOPS Board members started a community outreach program. They volunteered their time and went around in the community seeking donations every weekend (Saturdays and Sundays). The ICOPS Board members also foot so much of the expenses to help start the project. In October of 2014, ICOPS Board secured a temporal space on Mukilteo Speedway Shopping Center between Lincoln Way & Hwy 99. The Board members with the help of the community started using the space to conduct five daily prayers, Taraweeh prayers during Ramadan, as well as conducting Qur’anic and other Islamic classes for the kids. That temporal (rental) space was able to house more than three hundred (300) congregants on Fridays, one hundred and twenty (120) pupils on weekend schools, Taraweeh prayers, Eid prayers, naming ceremonies as well as Jannazah. ICOPS operated the place for about four years before the owner decided to not renew the month-to-month lease. That was an exceedingly difficult moment for the ICOPS Board and the community. The ICOPS Board went on a search again for a place.
In April of 2018, ICOPS signed a leased to own property of 1.8 acres valued at $2.8 million for four years without interest. The renovation took 19 months to complete, due to City, County, and State regulations and requirements. Alhamdulillah, on December 19th, 2019, after fulfilling all the city, county, and state requirements, the Snohomish County granted the ICOPS Center a permanent occupancy certificate. The ICOPS masjid started operating for a couple of months and had to close due to the Covid 19 outbreak. During the pandemic, the Center continued to comply with the County, State, and CDC guidelines. The Center had many successes to be thankful for in terms of community involvement and support in the form of individual and fundraiser donations. Today, over two hundred and forty-four (244) pupils attend weekday and weekend Quran reading classes, Jumu’ah prayers, marriage ceremonies (Nika), Jannazah prayers, Ramadan Taraweeh, and many more activities such as Covid-19 vaccination clinics, are being conducted at the ICOPS Masjid center.
In Shaa Allah, the ICOPS Masjid Board is on the verge of paying off the Masjid property (an outstanding balance of $685,000) and is hoping to accomplish this by the end of the year 2021. As such, ICOPS Board is humbly asking all the community members to come out and attend the final fundraiser of the year scheduled for December 24th, 2021 at the ICOPS Masjid. In Shaa Allah, together we can all be part of history to enable the community to own this piece of land that will be of benefit to us now and to our progeny. May Allah grant us the ability to attend and participate in this fundraiser. Ameen.
