JACKSON, Miss. - This mid-size Southern city with its thriving Baptist, Methodist and Catholic churches may seem an unlikely home for one of the only museums in the United States devoted to Muslim culture.
Still, the International Museum of Muslim Cultures opened in April 2001, an attempt by organizers to educate their churchgoing neighbors about a faith that many viewed as mysterious, possibly violent.
The museum is right at home in Jackson's downtown arts district, which hosts an international ballet competition every four years and, for several years, was home to traveling exhibitions of culture and art treasures from around the world....