New Mosque In Roxbury

[KNRX]

"The long-awaited, much-debated new mosque in Roxbury Crossing is
scheduled formally to open at the end of this month.

The Muslim American Society, which is operating the new Islamic
Society of Boston Cultural Center (above), has scheduled two days of
events to celebrate the completion of the building. The building had a
soft opening last fall, during Ramadan, and has been in use since
then, but the events June 26 and 27 mark the formal inauguration as
the Muslim community prepares to expand programming in the building.
The major inaugural events will include an interfaith breakfast at the
Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center, across the street from the
mosque; a ribbon-cutting, call-to-worship, and prayer service at the
mosque itself; and a celebratory dinner at the Boston Marriott Copley
Place. The dinner will feature a speech by U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, a
Minnesota Democrat who is the first Muslim to serve in Congress; the
breakfast will feature Harvard Divinity School Dean William A. Graham,
who is a noted scholar of Islam, as well as a variety of local
religious leaders; mosque officials say they expect Governor Patrick
to attend the breakfast and Mayor Menino to attend the ribbon-cutting.

"I see this as continuing the historic role that Boston has played in
the cultural and religious history of America,'' said Bilal Kaleem of
the Muslim American Society. "This is where the Pilgrims landed and
where a lot of the country's first churches are, and we really see
Muslim history in America having one of its key moments here.''

Kaleem argued that the ISBCC is different from other mosques in
America because it is located in the city (rather than the suburbs)
and because in addition to serving as a mosque it aspires to function
as a community center with a mission of "integrating Muslims into
active civic life.''

Source: http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles_of_faith/2009/06/new_mosque_in_r.html

The 68,000 square-foot mosque has a capacity of about 3,000
worshipers, and is already drawing about 600 to Friday worship, Kaleem
said. The mosque has been in the works for nearly 20 years, has cost
about $15.6 million so far (the Muslim community hopes to build a
school on the site at some point) and has been riven by controversy
and litigation over a variety of comments and organizational
affiliations of mosque backers as well as over the city's role in
providing the land for the mosque. Defenders of the mosque have
suggested that the criticism is intensified, if not motivated, by
bias; critics of the mosque have said they have legitimate concerns
about the associations and ideas of its leaders."