Imam Syed Shafeeq Rahman (left) prays with a group of other Treasure Coast Muslims on Monday, June 13, at the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce on West Midway Road. Orlando gay nightclub gunman Omar Mateen used to pray regularly at the mosque, according to other congregants. (XAVIER MASCAREÑAS/TREASURE COAST NEWSPAPERS)

By Lisa Broadt of TCPalm

For nearly 30 years, the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce was an inconspicuous place of worship, one of four Treasure Coast mosques that together served fewer than 500 area Muslims.

Now, after being tied to two attacks, the center is under national scrutiny.

How the Islamic Center — a converted church bordered by palm trees on Midway Road — fits into the small Muslim community in Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River counties varies depending on who you ask.

The center is a "central point for the Muslim community," which caters to local Muslims with "events, lectures, meetings, classes, and much more," according to its website. That's an exaggeration, according to spokesman Wilfredo Ruiz, who likens it to a "chapel, not a church," a place where Muslims gather to pray and sometimes share a meal. It's too small to provide the social services seen at mosques in Miami, Orlando and West Palm Beach, he said.

The Islamic Center has about 150 regular attendees; most are over 40 and many have children in elementary or middle school, according to Ruiz. Their nationalities vary, but the largest segment are of Pakistani or Bangladeshi heritage. There are about twice as many men as women, Ruiz said.

The mosque is of the Sunni sect, the branch of Islam practiced by about 90 percent of Muslims. It is not particularly conservative and not involved in radicalizing its members, according to Ruiz.

EXTREMISTS

Orlando shooter Omar Mateen and Moner Mohammad Abu-Salha, believed to be the first American suicide bomber in Syria, were on the fringes of the Islamic Center community, according to Imam Syed Shafeeq Rahman and other mosque members.

Mateen's Afghani heritage and age — at 29 he was more than 10 years younger than the typical adults in attendance — may have contributed to his detachment, according to Ruiz.

"There's an absence in the community of older teens to people in their 40s. He was very unusual," Ruiz said about Mateen. "After Friday noon prayers, the older people stay and socialize. He did so very few times. Usually, as soon as prayer concluded, he got back in his car and went to work."

Abu-Salha kept an even lower profile; most of the congregation knew his family but probably not his name until 2014 when he carried out the alleged bombing in Syria, Ruiz said.

The Islamic Center congregation is not well-placed to determine how the two young men became radicalized, according to Ruiz.

"To see signs of radicalization, you need to get to know the person and what their normal conduct is," he said.

Stuart Imam Maged Metwally, who previously was involved with the Fort Pierce mosque, said the actions of Mateen and Abu-Salha have "nothing to do with Islam."

"They were out of whack," Metwally said. "It just happened."

SUNNIS

The Treasure Coast's four mosques — all Sunni — are well camouflaged amid U.S. 1 corridor sprawl.

In Martin County, the Stuart Masjid occupies the corner of an industrial warehouse on Southeast Dominica Terrace. Hidden behind covered windows, the mosque — one door down from the Viesel Biofuel facility — is marked only by a handwritten sign that reads: Masjid, #5.

The Stuart mosque broke off from the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce to make prayer more convenient for Martin County residents, Metwally said.

"You need a mosque every 20 miles. Otherwise the drive is too long," he said.

In Indian River County, the Vero Beach Musallah Mosque blends into an Oslo Road strip mall and, probably for many, is given away only by the rows of shoes left on the sidewalk by attendees at prayer.

Meanwhile, Muslim Friends of Florida in Fort Pierce — a three-acre, $700,000 property on U.S. 1, according to the St. Lucie property appraiser — easily could be mistaken for a motel.

The Treasure Coast is home to about 1,400 residents of Southeast and South Central Asian heritage and about 750 people of Middle Eastern descent, according to U.S. Census data from 2014.