New Orleans Prayer Times
New Orleans, LA · Central Time · ISNA method
New Orleans, LA
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Islam's American Roots
Louisiana and New Orleans hold a special place in American Muslim history. Some of the earliest enslaved Africans brought to Louisiana were Muslim, bringing Islamic prayer and culture to the New World centuries before organized Muslim immigration.
Qibla from New Orleans
49° NE
Face northeast toward the North Atlantic route to Mecca. GPS Qibla compass →
New Orleans Muslim Communities
📜 Historical Enslaved Muslim Legacy
Louisiana holds a profound place in American Muslim history. West African Muslims — Wolof, Mandinka, Fulani, and Hausa peoples who had practiced Islam for generations before their enslavement — were brought to Louisiana in the early 18th century as part of the French colonial slave trade. Some maintained Islamic prayer practices, Arabic literacy, and cultural memory across generations of bondage, creating an underground Islamic heritage in the plantation parishes surrounding New Orleans. Ibrahima Abd al-Rahman, an enslaved Muslim from the Futa Jallon highlands of Guinea, spent 40 years in bondage in Mississippi before his freedom was negotiated in the 1820s — his story, preserved in portraits and documented by abolitionists, is one of the most vivid surviving accounts of African Muslim life in the antebellum South.
This history makes New Orleans a city of deep significance in the story of Islam in America — a significance that predates the modern Muslim immigrant community by two centuries. Scholars of African American religious history have traced Islamic survivals in Louisiana Voodoo, in Creole music, and in the practices of enslaved communities who maintained fragments of their West African heritage under the pressures of slavery and forced Christianization. The Crescent City — whose very nickname evokes the Islamic crescent moon — stands as a living monument to the forgotten Muslim ancestors who were among the first people to pray to Allah on American soil.
🕌 Islamic Society of New Orleans
The Islamic Society of New Orleans (ISNO) is the central Muslim institution serving the greater New Orleans metropolitan area. ISNO's congregation spans Arab (Lebanese, Palestinian, Syrian), South Asian (Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Indian), African American, and convert communities — the full range of New Orleans's diverse Muslim population. The mosque provides daily prayers, Friday Jumu'ah, an Islamic school, Ramadan programming, and social services. ISNO faced an extraordinary challenge with Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which devastated New Orleans and displaced much of its population — including Muslim families who scattered to Houston, Atlanta, Baton Rouge, and beyond.
ISNO's recovery mirrored the city's own long and painful rebuilding process. The mosque worked to track displaced members, support returnees, and rebuild programming as New Orleans slowly repopulated over the following years. Today ISNO operates a mosque, Islamic school, and community services program serving the rebuilt New Orleans Muslim community. The experience of Katrina — of displacement, mutual aid across religious and ethnic lines, and slow rebuilding — remains a defining part of ISNO's institutional identity and is a story that resonates with Muslims globally who have experienced displacement and loss of community infrastructure.
🌍 Lebanese Arab Community — Pre-1965 Legacy
New Orleans has one of the oldest Arab communities in the United States. Lebanese immigrants — both Maronite Christians and Muslims — arrived via the port of New Orleans beginning in the 1880s, making this one of the earliest Arab settlements in America. New Orleans's port was a major entry point for immigrants from the Ottoman Empire, and Lebanese merchants and peddlers fanned out from the city across Louisiana, Mississippi, and the Gulf South. Lebanese Muslim families established businesses in the French Quarter, the Warehouse District, and surrounding neighborhoods, becoming part of the city's distinctive ethnic mosaic alongside Creole, Italian, Irish, and German communities.
This pre-immigration-act Arab legacy community predates the large Muslim immigration waves of the 1960s and beyond by nearly a century, making New Orleans's Arab Muslim history among the longest-running in the nation. Subsequent waves — Palestinian families after 1948, Syrians through the 20th century, Lebanese through periods of civil war — built on this foundation. Today, Arab Muslim families in New Orleans are part of a multigenerational community with deep roots in the city's commercial and cultural life. Some Lebanese Muslim families in New Orleans can trace their American roots back four or five generations — making them, by any definition, as authentically American as any other ethnic group in this most American of cities.
🌏 Bangladeshi & South Asian Community
New Orleans's South Asian Muslim community, led in numbers by Bangladeshi families, has grown through the service industry, healthcare, and small business sectors. Bangladeshi Muslims operate restaurants, convenience stores, and small businesses across the metro area — a pattern of economic integration seen in many Gulf South cities, where Bangladeshi entrepreneurs have become significant presences in food service and retail. The Bangladeshi community in New Orleans maintains connections to global Bangladeshi diaspora networks, sending remittances, participating in political debates about Bangladesh, and celebrating Eid with traditional Bangladeshi feasts alongside the Arabic and African American Muslim traditions of ISNO.
Pakistani and Indian Muslim physicians and researchers work at Tulane University Medical Center, LSU Health New Orleans, and Children's Hospital New Orleans — institutions that recruited internationally and have South Asian faculty in medicine and public health. South Asian Muslims participate in ISNO's governance and programming while maintaining their own community networks and cultural associations. New Orleans's unique cultural environment — where food, music, and celebration are central to civic life — creates a distinctive context for South Asian Muslim community-building. The South Asian Muslim experience of navigating Mardi Gras, Jazz Fest, and the city's festive calendar while maintaining Islamic practice is a genuinely New Orleanian story, unlike anything in Chicago or New York.
New Orleans Prayer Times by Month
30°N · ISNA method · Central Time (CST Nov–Mar / CDT Mar–Nov)
| Month | Fajr | Dhuhr | Asr | Maghrib | Isha |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 6:03 AM | 11:54 AM | 3:05 PM | 5:12 PM | 6:36 PM |
| February | 5:44 AM | 11:57 AM | 3:42 PM | 5:49 PM | 7:13 PM |
| March | 5:05 AM | 11:52 AM | 4:18 PM | 7:18 PM | 8:44 PM |
| April | 4:26 AM | 11:44 AM | 4:50 PM | 7:54 PM | 9:19 PM |
| May | 3:59 AM | 11:38 AM | 5:14 PM | 8:26 PM | 9:53 PM |
| June | 3:50 AM | 11:41 AM | 5:27 PM | 8:44 PM | 10:11 PM |
| July | 4:01 AM | 11:49 AM | 5:24 PM | 8:42 PM | 10:08 PM |
| August | 4:36 AM | 11:46 AM | 5:08 PM | 8:13 PM | 9:36 PM |
| September | 5:10 AM | 11:31 AM | 4:37 PM | 7:29 PM | 8:50 PM |
| October | 5:44 AM | 11:19 AM | 4:06 PM | 6:45 PM | 8:09 PM |
| November | 5:30 AM | 11:24 AM | 3:24 PM | 5:22 PM | 6:46 PM |
| December | 5:58 AM | 11:40 AM | 3:08 PM | 5:04 PM | 6:29 PM |
Frequently Asked Questions
What time is Fajr in New Orleans LA today?▼
Fajr in New Orleans ranges from about 4:10 AM in late June to 6:03 AM in January. At 30°N on Central Time, New Orleans has among the mildest Fajr schedules of any Central Time city — a shorter seasonal swing than northern cities. ISNA method (15° solar depression) is used, which the Islamic Society of New Orleans and area mosques follow. Metairie and Jefferson Parish locations vary by ±2 minutes.
What is Islam's history in New Orleans?▼
Louisiana and New Orleans hold a singular place in American Muslim history. West African Muslims — including Wolof, Mandinka, and Fulani peoples who practiced Islam before their enslavement — were among the first large groups brought to Louisiana in the early 18th century. Some of these enslaved Muslims maintained Islamic prayer practices, literacy in Arabic, and cultural memory for generations under slavery. Ibrahima Abd al-Rahman, an enslaved Muslim prince from Guinea, lived for decades in Mississippi before his freedom was negotiated — his story is documented by historians as one of the most vivid examples of West African Muslim life in antebellum America. New Orleans is the gateway city of this history.
What is the Islamic Society of New Orleans?▼
The Islamic Society of New Orleans (ISNO) serves as the primary Muslim institution for the greater New Orleans metropolitan area, providing Friday prayer, Islamic education, Ramadan programming, and community services. ISNO's congregation reflects New Orleans's diverse Muslim population — Arab (Lebanese, Palestinian, Syrian), South Asian (Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Indian), African American, and convert communities worship together. The mosque navigated the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when large portions of New Orleans's population — including many Muslims — were displaced, and worked to rebuild both its congregation and the surrounding community.
What is the Lebanese Arab community history in New Orleans?▼
New Orleans has one of the oldest Arab communities in the United States, with Lebanese Maronite Christian and Lebanese Muslim families arriving before the 20th century. Lebanese immigrants came to New Orleans via the port — a major entry point for the Americas — starting in the 1880s and 1890s. Some Lebanese Muslim families settled in New Orleans and southern Louisiana, establishing businesses in the French Quarter and surrounding neighborhoods. This pre-immigration-act Arab legacy community predates the large Muslim immigration waves of the 1960s and beyond by nearly a century, making New Orleans's Arab Muslim history among the longest-running in the nation.
What direction is Qibla from New Orleans?▼
From New Orleans, the Qibla points approximately 52° from true north — northeast. The great-circle route crosses the North Atlantic, passes over Europe and Turkey, and descends into the Arabian Peninsula. New Orleans mosques orient prayer halls to the northeast. Use our GPS Qibla compass at prayertimesnearme.com/qibla for an exact bearing from your location.