source: http://www.illumemag.com
The Muslim community of Sacramento will welcome its new Islamic Center (IC) this Saturday.
The $5.5 million project consists of a Moorish-style mosque with arched entrances and a high green dome with a crescent on top.
“The architecture is a mixture of what’s in the Prophet Muhammad’s mosque in Medina, Saudia Arabia and the Moorish mosque in Cordoba, southern Spain,” said the project director Javed Iqbal. “It blends well with California Spanish architecture.”
The 21,000 square foot Islamic Center was built by SALAM, the Sacramento Area League of Associated Muslims.
More than a place of worship, the IC houses a gift shop, school and educational programs, with an 8,000-volume library planned.
According to the Sacramento Bee, in a recent speech, California Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said, “I’m still proud we are a community that respects and welcomes all faiths…The fact a mosque can grow and expand without the kind of rancor we saw in New York City speaks very well of Sacramento’s Muslim American community and Sacramento in general.”
“Muslim leaders here are very active in building community ties,” Steinberg said.
Most of the funds were collected within the Muslim community, according to the newspaper that gives the example of Amer, a former accounting professor at California State University who donated $500,000 to the new center and Bassam Dahduli, a Muslim American real estate investor who has pledged $1.5 million and raised $1.5 million more.
Around 65,000 Muslim-Americans are estimated to live in the greater Sacramento, a number which has doubled over the last 20 years.
Al Masjid 