- Title: CANADA: Small Muslim community builds Canada's biggest mosque
- Date: 7th July 2008
- Summary: MOSQUE EXTERIOR
- Embargoed: 22nd July 2008 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Canada
- Country: Canada
- Topics: Religion
- Reuters ID: LVA15WEZ4NFZWUJR1FQYB3BHLYYP
- Story Text: Calgary's Ahmadiyya Muslim Community unveils Canada's largest Mosque Complex and a stunning architectural landmark in the city. With a total area of approximately 48,000 sq. ft., the community hopes the new Mosque will be a symbol of peace and social harmony.
A small Muslim community opened Canada's largest mosque on Saturday (July 5) in Calgary, a state-of-the-art facility to serve as a both a place for prayer and base for adherents to reach out to this booming city.
Just 3,000 people make up the Ahmadiyya Muslim community in the oil-industry hub of Calgary. But their leaders expect numbers to grow quickly, prompting the need for the 48,000 square foot (4,460 square metre) Baitun Nur mosque with its towering minaret and ornate calligraphy.
It also shows the increasingly multicultural makeup of a city often thought of as overwhelmingly white, conservative and Christian.
"Mosques are very emotional buildings. They're not regular buildings," said Naseer Ahmad, the architect of the mosque.
Ahmad said he built the mosque to be "gender neutral," giving equal space to both men and women inside the facility.
On Wednesday (July 2), the London-based leader of the sect, Hadhrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, arrived to adoring, chanting local Ahmadis. He toured the prayer halls, gymnasium, classrooms, offices, television studio and kitchen facilities.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Calgary Mayor Dave Bronconnier joined the sect's London-based leader, Hadhrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, at the mosque's inauguration ceremony on Saturday (July 5).
The well-wishing is a far cry from the reaction in countries like Indonesia, where the government last month warned that followers of Ahmadiyya, whose slogan is "Love for All, Hatred for None," could face jail time for tarnishing Islam.
Dr. Safeer Khan, Spokesperson for the Ahmadiyya community said, "The Muslim community in Calgary, the Ahmadiyya community they have a message that whichever and whatever country you are living, you must love that country, you must be loyal to that country. There is no place for violence or violent jihad in Islam. That's the wrong interpretation of the extremist clerics."
Construction of the mosque was completed in two years for just a C$15 million ($14.7 million) -- a fraction of what a similar-sized project would normally cost in the booming city of more than a million people -- due to volunteer labour, said Farhan Khokhar, head of communications for Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at Canada.
Azher Chaudhary donated ten percent of the project's cost, or $1.4 million. He said God will reward him for his donation.
"This is my (money), I should say investment to the god,"
Chaudhary said.
The Ahmadiyya sect has about 50,000 members in Canada who also plan new mosques in Brampton, Ontario; Saskatoon, Saskatchewan; and Vancouver, British Columbia.
Khokhar said teachings include nonviolence, freedom of expression as well as a love for one's host country and sense of duty to the local community. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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