A $9 million project for a new mosque is expected to be completed next year in Charlotte. Pillars Mosque will serve the city’s growing population and diverse Muslim community, which includes an increasing number of converts. The project is led by John Ederer — the mosque’s imam — who is white and also a convert. In a state long part of the Bible belt, converts in the local community highlight the reasons behind being drawn to the religion.
One recent afternoon, the adhan echoed inside the current Pillars Mosque near the University City area, summoning Muslims such as Charnissa Warren to pray. Warren is a Creole African American who was born in Tennessee. The 45-year-old convert says she was drawn to Islam for several reasons.
“The devotion. The discipline, the focus on God, and the way of life,” Warren said.
As part of their way of life, Muslims are required to pray 5 times a day and fast during Ramadan. It's something Warren had to pick up after converting. Warren converted after the 9/11 attacks. Back then, Warren wasn’t part of a Muslim community that had classes for converts, which made it difficult for her to learn.
“How to pray, how to pronounce, you know how to prostrate and how to be a Muslim,” Warren said. "There was a lot of trial and error.”
Warren practiced the religion for about 10 years until she strayed away, partly because of those challenges. She’s been coming to Pillars Mosque for about two years. What drew her back in, she said, was missing the routine of praying and those she met at the mosque.
“Sisterhood. Something I didn’t experience in Christianity, I didn’t experience even in social life," Warren said. "Just to be a part of a community and be fully accepted.”
In a nearby room, Imam John Ederer pulled and flicked through some holy books that included the Quran. Imam Ederer leads the religious group's efforts to build the new Pillars Mosque.
Outside the current building on a recent morning, workers hurried to finish the new Pillars Mosque, a 30,000-square-foot building that is expected to include a cafe, library and a food pantry — open to the wider community. Before becoming the mosque's imam, Ederer says he faced challenges.
“In 1998, I was with the wrong crowd and got into a tough situation, starting to pray about and thinking spiritually about what I’m doing with my life,” Ederer said. "I decided to go ahead and do some comparative research because for me my experiences with Catholicism and Christianity, I wasn’t able to find what moved me as a spiritual person.”
A translated Quran answered the questions and confusion he felt with religion, Ederer said. He added that his family was initially pleased with his new faith and way of life. That changed three years later when 9/11 happened.
“Two brothers, I haven’t spoken to them in 24 years. No matter how I try to explain it. No matter how I try to help them understand,” Ederer said. "There was definitely an agenda from the media and political spheres to make everybody believe that somehow Islam as a whole religion and therefore, those who follow Islam, Muslims, are all somehow part of this event.”
After travelling to places such as Egypt and Kuwait to learn and study more about Islam, Ederer returned to America and led another Charlotte Muslim group until he was asked by local Muslim leaders and donors to lead the current Pillars Mosque and the new mosque.
Ederer says about 200 people used to attend Friday prayers at Pillars Mosque, but now they have about 1,200 attendees. According to a Pew Research study, Muslims represent less than 1% of the Charlotte region's population. As mosque attendance grows at Pillars Mosque, Ederer hopes to invite people in to talk about a religion that he says doesn’t fit neatly into boxes.
"Some things that a devout or a fundamental Muslim, you may think is liberal or very progressive. And some things you might think is very conservative,” Ederer said. "So we don't fit in that box, and so to be able to have discussions in which we can bring different people together as neighbors, just as people, let's talk about it.”
Pillars Mosque also has a WhatsApp group with about 170 converts. Karla Ordonez is one of the converts. The 26-year-old is from Charlotte, but her family’s roots are in Honduras. She says the convert program has helped her settle.
“If there was no convert community, I would feel a little out of place," Ordonez said. "But I’m glad that the community is here.”
Ordonez has covered her hair with a hijab for about four months. Something she was initially concerned might give off the wrong impression.
“Again, it goes back to the whole fitting in thing. I’m not Arab,” Ordonez said. "The majority of people don’t know that Islam is for everyone and just think it’s an Arabic thing. I didn’t want to seem like I was trying to be something I wasn’t.”
Ordonez, who converted last year during Ramadan, says she was practicing the religion in secret for a period before opening up.
“If my mom were downstairs and my dad was at work, I would hide in my room, lock the door, and quickly pray. I remember one time I was actually praying, and Mom started knocking on the door,” Ordonez said. "I panicked. I threw off my Hijab and got up quickly, opened the door. And was like, ‘Yes’, like nothing happened.”
Despite some extended family questioning her decision to convert, she says that wasn’t the case with her parents.
"I was scared to tell them because they don’t know much about Islam. But once I told them, they were fine with it,” Ordonez said. "And my dad, he was like, ‘OK, as long as you're not worshipping the devil. Then you're good,' so they’re very supportive.”
As for whether the new mosque will lead to more converts and people turning to Islam, Ordonez brings up her own experience.
“One thing that drew me to it is that the imam is also a convert," Ordonez said. "I feel like many people will see that and that will draw them in as well.”
For Ordonez, that assumption is not tied to the imam being white. But instead, she points to him being a person who sought a religion that piques his curiosity and as someone who reflects a growing Charlotte community that seeks new and different experiences.
