Learning Something New About Muncie: the Islamic Center of Muncie

 So, this past weekend I was reading A Marine who hated Muslims went to a mosque to plant a bomb. His intended victims ended up saving his life.

I had not thought it would be about Muncie. It was:

He was a big guy with broad shoulders, marching toward their mosque with his head down and his face flushed red from what looked like anger. It was Friday at Muncie Islamic Center in Muncie, Indiana, and the mosque was filling with people who had come for afternoon prayers. As an outsider with a USMC tattoo on his right forearm and a skull tattoo on his left hand, he stood out.

His name was Richard “Mac” McKinney, and he was there not to worship but to destroy. He was a former US Marine who had developed a hatred toward Islam during combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. His fury deepened when he returned home to Muncie to see how Muslims had settled into what he called his city, and even sent their children to sit next to his daughter at her elementary school.

Turns out it is also a documentary:

 McKinney’s transformation is the subject of a riveting documentary short called “Stranger at the Gate.” The film, which won a special jury prize at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival, recounts how McKinney abandoned his plot and ended up converting to Islam and embracing a surprising role at the mosque.

And this is what gets missed about the Midwest, people running against the grain of stereotypes, life is not all white people surrounded by corn and soybean fields. We are willing to take persons on their own merits.

Meanwhile, the Islamic Center of Muncie still exists. 

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