Mohamed Mabrouk wears the traditional white robe of an imam. But instead of the foreign-accented English that for decades has been the norm among American Muslim religious leaders, the new 21-year-old leader of a California mosque speaks with the Detroit accent he has carried with him from childhood.
Mabrouk's appointment last month as imam of the Islamic Center of Temecula Valley in California is a sign of a changing Muslim community that is shifting from being almost entirely immigrant-led to one in which young, U.S.-born people are increasingly taking leadership roles.
The membership of mosques is also becoming more American-born, as the children of Muslim immigrants who arrived in the United States in the 1970s, '80s and '90s make up a rising percentage of worshippers.
