ISNA Headquarters Mosque, Plainfield, Indiana

Omar Khalidi makes the mosque at the headquarters of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) at Plainfield, Indiana, his chief example of "innovative design"; it is the work of the Pakistani-Canadian architect Gulzar Haider. ¹ The essay dates it to 1979, the photo caption to 1981. ^{1 2}

Haider argues for a design approach that is "environmental", "morphological" and "semiotic", and holds that Islamic architecture should be understandable to all: giving immigrants belonging and hope, linking indigenous Muslims with Muslims elsewhere, giving the new Muslim confidence, and appearing to non-Muslims as open rather than closed or forbidding. ¹ The mosque has an austere contemporary character without iconic references to traditional Islamic architecture, its solid outer walls giving few clues to the interior. ¹ Haider says it addresses Muslims through the concepts of al-batin ("the hidden") and al-zahir ("the manifest"), two of the divine names, through mystical geometry and through its cubic form, a reminder of the Ka'ba as symbol of unity; he relates the contrast of inside and outside to Muslims being a minority in America, where Islam is a private matter of faith rather than a state religion. ¹

Khalidi notes that the innovative mosques of Haider and others have not always pleased immigrant congregations, since they do not match their idea of a mosque, and expects their descendants and American converts to favour such architecture. ¹