Eileen Farhat, left, prepares to give Gov. Kathleen Sebelius a tour of the new Wichita mosque on Wednesday.
Posted on 07/16/2005 9:02:48 PM PDT by BigFinn
Wichita-area Muslims on Wednesday celebrated the grand opening of Kansas' largest mosque.
The event drew hundreds of visitors -- including Gov. Kathleen Sebelius -- to join the celebration and tour the facility.
The 10,050-square-foot mosque -- which has yet to be officially named -- is at 6655 E. 34th St. North and adjoins the Muslim Community Center, where Muslims had previously prayed.
The mosque includes a carpeted prayer area on the main floor, a 10-foot-high speaker's platform or pulpit, an area to wash the bodies of people who have died and an office for the imam, a prayer leader.
For Muslims, the opening of the mosque marked the end of nearly 10 years of concept planning and four years of fiscal planning. It was built at a cost of more than $800,000, debt-free.
"It's just like home," said Nabil Seyam, spokesman for the Islamic Society of Wichita. "The mosque, it is a place of worship, but it also is a place where it feels like home. There is no evil in it. It's a place of peace."
Eileen Farhat, left, prepares to give Gov. Kathleen Sebelius a tour of the new Wichita mosque on Wednesday.
As part of the grand opening ceremony, there were readings from the Quran. Muslim leaders and Sebelius gave speeches to a standing-room only audience of several hundred inside the community center.
Sebelius told the group she was impressed with the facility not just as a faith center, but as a community center and education center. There is a school inside the building.
After the speeches and readings, visitors were allowed to tour the mosque. Visitors removed their shoes as they entered the carpeted prayer area. Women were given scarves to cover their hair.
After the tour, Sebelius said she hoped the visibility of the mosque would prompt non-Muslims to visit and learn more about the faith.
"I'm a big believer that the more we learn about one another, the more we learn how much we have in common," she said. "People tend to view each other with a little suspicion until they figure out these are parents and professionals and community leaders. I think this is great."
Assem Farhat, president of the board of trustees for the Islamic Society of Wichita, saw another positive in having such a large mosque in the city.
"It improves the attractability of the city to Muslims" from outside the city, he said. "They would be more likely to consider Wichita."
Following the tours, people gathered in the community center for refreshments.
At one table sat Sharfuddin Shah, the former president of the board of trustees for the Islamic Society. He moved to Dallas last year before the mosque was complete, so seeing the finished building was important and special.
"It's very nice," he said. "I was glad to hear it was finished and glad to see it finished."
Oh, gross. Right where I live.
EDUCATION .......hmmmm...wonder what KIND OF EDUCATION? Is it sanctioned by the State.....do they have to follow the rules of the State like Home Schoolers and Private Schools.....????
this is Wichita...
KC has had mosques and a full fledged madrassa since the mid 90's. The KC Madrassa was funded in large part by the Saudi royal family, along strict Wahabbist lines.
Islamic centers are now complete at all 4 year universities in KS, also with the help of the Saudi's. KU & KSU have the main centers for spiritual doctrine, the imam in KU is a supposedly well respected Pakistani. The Islamic Centers at Fort Hays, WSU, Pitt, and Emporia are merely outreach and "spiritual development" centers.
Rumor has it that if you convert to Islam they will help pay for college, but I don't know the veracity of this. Supposedly works to get inner city youth into college and into the muslim community.
Welcome to middle America!
All I want to know is...when do the impeachement proceedings begin? Time, place and channel. There is nothing more to say!
But somehow, the ACLU gives a pass to Muslims, since both are united in their hatred of all things American, Christian or Jewish.
OMG....so....are they "moderate Muslims?"
A cancer on our nation which must be excised before it is too late.
Latitude: 37° 43' North
Longitude: 97° 20' West
Ordnance: JDAM
Amen. I'll leave you a little quote from our fellow Freeper Alouette: "ACLU = Atheists, Communists, and Liars Unlimited."
If only it were so easy. I'm afraid things will have to get alot worse before the average American wakes up and understands the immediate threat posed by the proselytes of the pedophile false prophet, moohamet (pork piss be upon him!!!)
But, when the time does come, a JDAM will be an effective and quite satisfying option.
I don't see anything wrong with an extra effort to try to integrate Muslims into American society.
As Britain shows, cutting them off into their own ghettos with no attention paid from the outside culture just produces a breeding ground for drugs and radical politics. Maybe they do need something like this attention.
If this visit from Sebelius and other members of the media helps remind them that they are Americans, then for the best.
umm, that depends...hehe
part of my work involves studying these folks, and so I've met quite a few and got to know some pretty well.
For example, the Emporia center is a three story building built directly across campus. Some are quite reasonable folks that you wouldn't mind having as neighbors. On the other hand, there are some younger ones that are quite open about their hate for the US, "zionist conspiracies", etc.They really want to see you and I dead, and they're not at all shy about saying it.
The openly antagonistic ones are the most interesting to me. They despise western attitudes towards the individual and show a distinct dislike for Western women. Yet they copy "gansta rap" culture and dress like Dr Dre & Snoop Dogg...very odd.
Of the student pop. 80% appear to want to fit in the the US, about 20% openly hate the US. The 80% are terrified of the young thugs. That is why we are now seeing burka's in Kansas. I know one Pakistani gentleman in Emporia, KS, who I won't name, who now insists on his daughters wearing veils at least when they leave the house, lest the "young thugs" from the college attack them.
That's how this works. It's not that all muslims are fundie wackos, but enough are that they cow the others into submission.
And in our efforts to appear "multi-cultural" we aid and abet the islamofascist.
Agreed - When a JDAM meets a mosque, civilization is the winner.
Funny, I don't see these kind of stories when Catholic's Dream are realized and a new church is built.
We've had a pretty big mosque just a few hundred miles south in Tulsa for a while now. Thanks to the jackasses at University of Tulsa... training Saudi oil engineers since the 1970s!
Huh??? You make no sense at all. Britain didn't cut them off into their own ghettos. They did that themselves since they are incapable of joining the modern world, and definitely don't want to become part of the western world. Britain's only mistake was letting them in the country, the same mistake we are making.
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