The Islamic community has lost a key figure.
Niraj Warikoo of the Detroit Free Press reports that Chuck (Khalil) Alawan, a Farmington Hills resident, who was a co-founder of one of the biggest mosques in Michigan and a longtime interfaith leader, died Wednesday. He had suffered from heart and kidney complications.
He was 83.
His father was a Syrian immigrant and his mother was a Lebanese French Canadian, Warikoo reported. Alwan was active in the Republican party and the National Rifle Association.
"He was all-American as much as you can imagine," a younger brother, interfaith activist Eide Alawan of Dearborn told the Free Press.
He was instrumental in getting the Islamic House of Wisdom started in Dearborn Heights, the Freep says. He stressed the importance of communicating in English and having an English sign next to Arab signs in the mosque.
He’s survived by his wife, two children, two grandchildren, two brothers and one sister.
Visitation is 4 to 9 today and Friday at the Islamic Center of America, 19500 Ford Road in Dearborn, and the funeral is 10 a.m. to noon Saturday. Burial follows in Plymouth.
