Our Imam

John (Yahya) Ederer was born and raised in Oklahoma. After four years of being involved with a delinquent clique of hustlers and hip-hoppers, he began searching for spirituality. In 1998, after researching philosophy, comparative religion and psychology, he found solace and soul nourishment while reading a translation of the Qur’an, which led him to accept Islam as his way of life. In 2002, he was offered a scholarship with Islamic American University where he began his journey of seeking sacred knowledge on a full-time basis. Since then, he completed the program at Al-Diwan center in Cairo resulting in a certification by the Ministry of Education in Egypt on the mastery of Arabic sciences. He then spent close to four years in Kuwait as head of the English Department for the Islam Presentation Committee. While in Kuwait, he studied with a few scholars two to three times a week, focusing on Hanbali Jurisprudence. He also attained a diploma from the Islamic Institute of Kuwait and a license in Qur’anic Memorization and recitation according to Hafs on the authority of Asim by way of Tayyibah.

Imam John is a young dynamic Imam who seeks to empower the future of Islam in America by engaging the Muslim youth and properly integrating with society while holding firm to our identity. He is highly active regularly invited to spread the truth of Islam among the interfaith community. He is also regularly internationally requested to give lectures and seminars. You can find much of his writings on the brass crescent award winning blog  http://www.suhaibwebb.com/ . His message can simply be summed up in that Islam is an American reality that has a lot to offer its neighbors. It is the responsibility of all Muslims living here to prove that by word and more importantly by deed.