The new Islamic Center of America opens its doors to serve the Muslim population in Dearborn, Michigan, May 13, 2005. The center has a gold-domed mosque flanked by two minarets helping to make the 70,000 square-foot facility one of the largest Islamic centers in North America. The main prayer hall accommodates 1,000 people, including 700 men in one area and 300 women in the balcony.
Hundreds of worshipers gathered on Friday for the first prayer session at a gilded new mosque that is yet another facility to serve the large Muslim population around Detroit.
A gold-domed mosque flanked by two minarets and a banquet hall were part of a $14 million expansion project to a Muslim school that, taken together, is now the Islamic Center of America, a 70,000 square-foot facility.
When a 700-seat auditorium and a two-story library and school are also completed, it will likely become the largest Islamic center in North America, Muslim officials said.
"The center is a symbol of the sharp growth and advancement of our Muslim community," Imam Hassan al-Qazwini, the spiritual leader of the mosque, told Reuters.
The main prayer hall accommodates 1,000 people, including 700 men in one area and 300 women in a balcony.
Builders imported doors from Turkey, wood from the Philippines, granite from India and Brazil, and chandeliers from Egypt, said Alan Abbas, who built the center.
"It has been a labor of love," said Abbas, an immigrant from Lebanon.
The mosque is only a few miles from the new Arab American National Museum, the first museum in the United States dedicated exclusively to Arab Americans. It also opened its doors this month.
Al-Qazwini said a major goal of the new mosque will be to reach out to non-Muslims to educate people about Islam.
"This center will offer a great opportunity for non-Muslims to come and learn about Islam," he said. "There are many misconceptions existing in the mind of non-Muslims in this country about Islam, unfortunately."
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