The Islamic Institute of Knowledge is located in Dearborn Michigan, a middle-and working-class suburb of Detroit.
The center sits along a commercial strip containing ethnic bakeries and restaurants, behind which is a residential neighborhood of single family homes.
Sheikh Abd al-Latif, along with the center's current leader, Imam Abdul-Latif Berry and others, founded the Islamic Institute of Knowledge in 1983, in part in reaction to the Islamic Center of America which was largely run by American-born and English-speaking Muslims.
At that time, the center was located in a cinder-block building on Jonathon and Warren in Dearborn.
Most of those affiliated with it are of Lebanese descent, including the current imam, with many coming from the village of Tibneen in south Lebanon.
