The summary and timelines of Muslim Angelenos represents the project's initial phase authored by Edina Lekovic, the inaugural Islamic Studies Community-Scholar-in- Residence. The Fowler Museum partnered with the Islamic Studies Program to host this residency, which enables community leaders, artists, and other non-academics who engage with Islam or Muslims in the community to benefit from a year of residency at UCLA. This residency was also supported by the Center for Near Eastern Studies and the Center for Community Engaged Learning.

Seeded by African Americans fleeing the south during the Great Migration and immigrants from the Middle East and South Asia, the roots of Islam in Los Angeles were planted as early as the mid-1800s. Conversion and immigration have since shaped Muslim Angelenos into one of the most diverse faith communities in the world. Los Angeles has one of the largest Muslim populations of any city in the Americas, with recent estimates placing the number at close to half a million people.

Today, Muslim Angelenos come from at least twenty-five races and nationalities - ranging from Black American descendents of slaves, Latinx converts, Asians from Pakistan to China, African immigrants from across the continent, Arabs from twenty-two neighboring nations, Iranians, Europeans from the former USSR and Yugoslavia, Turks, and White and Black American converts.