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With mosque, dream is reality
The Wichita Eagle ^ | July 14, 2005 | Joe Rodriguez

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."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; US: Kansas
KEYWORDS: burkawearingrats; dhimmitude; islam; kansascitymosque; mosque; mosques; mosquewatch; muslimamericans; rats; sebelius; wichita
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To: ncountylee
Happy to be at your service!

I firmly believe that the most beautiful (and useful) manifestation of a mosque (or madrassa) is as a fresh, smoking crater.

In that way, and in that way only, evil ceases to be practiced there.

81 posted on 07/17/2005 6:13:51 AM PDT by MarineDad (Whenever mosques and JDAM's meet, civilization benefits.)
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To: quantim

Whats up with the B.O.T. [Breeder of Terrorists] in the upper left corner? Looks to me like she is wearing an infidal invention under those robes, a pair of eyeglasses?


82 posted on 07/17/2005 6:18:35 AM PDT by ABN 505
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To: BigFinn
I am a Imam for the county
And I drive the message home
Searching for jihadi's to carry a deadly load
I hear them singing in the madrasas
I hear the call to prayers
And the Witchita Imam is still on the line...
83 posted on 07/17/2005 6:23:16 AM PDT by csvset
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To: TheCrusader

You make a good point.


84 posted on 07/17/2005 6:39:19 AM PDT by B Knotts
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To: csvset

LMAO!


85 posted on 07/17/2005 6:40:59 AM PDT by B Knotts
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To: goodnesswins

You mean the dark woman to the left? Could be, can't really tell, or it could a member of the govenor's staff. Either way, my point is that you can properly respectful without giving up your own values. When I visited Japan, and visited Buddhist temples, I could be respectful, humble and quiet; but as Christian, I would not pray there.


86 posted on 07/17/2005 6:41:34 AM PDT by Clock King
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To: softwarecreator

Well, I don't have any inside information or anything. It's just that when you see the politicians acting in the dhimmi-like, subservient manner like in this story/picture, you wonder what possibly could be the motivation. And nuclear blackmail is just one of the possibilities.


87 posted on 07/17/2005 6:43:52 AM PDT by B Knotts
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To: B Knotts
B Knotts wrote:
There must be some explanation that they are not telling us about...they can't all be this dumb. Can they?

Yes, they can.

Dumb, yes. Blind, yes. But - even more ominously - COMPLICIT.

Including the top guy in the White House (especially when it comes to immigration).

- John

88 posted on 07/17/2005 6:49:54 AM PDT by Fishrrman
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To: B Knotts
Okay, why not?  Makes about as much sense as anything else.  I'd rather believe your theory than the fact that they are so determined never to say Bush was right that they'd sleep with the enemy.
89 posted on 07/17/2005 8:05:58 AM PDT by softwarecreator (Facts are to liberals as holy water is to vampires)
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To: TheCrusader
I've read many passages where God has (spiritually) blinded his people as chastisement for straying away from Him. It's as though He is saying: "If you don't need Me any longer then go ahead without Me, and find out what it's like to live a willful and God-less life.

Spot on, Sir. This is the truth of the entire matter.

90 posted on 07/17/2005 11:23:01 AM PDT by BigFinn
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To: Vigilanteman
There are enough fiscally conservative, socially liberal voters in Douglas and Johnson counties to push Dem politicians over the finish line? I don't know. Dennis Moore keeps getting re-elected, for what reason, I know not.

Voter fraud?
91 posted on 07/17/2005 11:59:48 AM PDT by Das Outsider
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To: TheCrusader
It's as though He is saying: "If you don't need Me any longer then go ahead without Me, and find out what it's like to live a willful and God-less life".

"For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools....Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen."

(Romans 1: 21 & 22,24 & 25, New International Version)

Your reference?
92 posted on 07/17/2005 12:09:25 PM PDT by Das Outsider
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To: Will_Zurmacht
Rumor has it that if you convert to Islam they will help pay for college, but I don't know the veracity of this.....

Rumor also has it that if you decide to convert to Islam and then think you can just change your mind and become a Hindu or a Jew or whatever, think again. The only way out of that religion (so peaceful...right?) is to die. At the hands of Jihadists I'm sure.

93 posted on 07/17/2005 12:09:28 PM PDT by ExSoldier (Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on dinner. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.)
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To: Cindy; WestCoastGal; Rushmore Rocks; Velveeta; nw_arizona_granny

Check this out....


94 posted on 07/17/2005 3:45:10 PM PDT by KylaStarr
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To: Das Outsider
"Your reference?"

Your reference was an excellent one. There are plenty of other ones as well, as I'm sure you know.

"No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." (Luke 16:13)
"For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those that do evil." (1 Peter 3:12)
In the example below, some of Jesus's followers walked away from Him because they found His teachings hard to accept. Note that Jesus did not plead with them or beg them to stay, but allowed them to walk away into whatever error and trouble lay ahead for them:
"He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me----

"---Many of his disciples, when they heard it, said, "This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?" But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples murmured at it, said to them, "Do you take offense at this?----- there are some of you that do not believe." For Jesus knew from the first who those were that did not believe, and who it was that would betray him----"

After this many of his disciples drew back and no longer went about with him. Jesus said to the twelve (Apostles), "Do you also wish to go away?" (John 6: 56-66)

God's blessings........
TC

95 posted on 07/17/2005 10:06:26 PM PDT by TheCrusader (("the frenzy of the Mohammedans has devastated the churches of God" Pope Urban II)
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To: BigFinn

96 posted on 07/18/2005 7:55:23 AM PDT by QuiMundus (Learn, Act, Educate, Repeat - http://www.smithism.com)
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To: Vigilanteman

I don't know about the Synagogue or Mormon temple, but speaking as a Catholic, she would not be interested except if it were some new agey interpretation of 'Cathedral' such as the new one in LA, and then careful to visit in a way that didn't link her to Catholicism. She'd have some statement at the ready about how her visit didn't violate separation of church and state. And, yes, the ACLU would be salivating, waiting for her to slip up on her most outrageous visit to something Catholic. Same would go for a synagogue or temple.


97 posted on 07/18/2005 8:04:42 AM PDT by fortunecookie
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To: BigFinn
"It improves the attractability of the city to Muslims" from outside the city, he said. "They would be more likely to consider Wichita."

That's terrible news for the good folk who live in Wichita!

98 posted on 07/18/2005 12:26:34 PM PDT by NRA2BFree
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To: SpringheelJack

With all due respect, I must say your comments and sentiments are borne of an ignorance of current affairs and history.

You should read up a bit...


99 posted on 07/18/2005 1:29:25 PM PDT by milford421
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To: milford421
With all due respect, I must say your comments and sentiments are borne of an ignorance of current affairs and history.

With all due respect, I could say the same of your denial. But if you want to talk about it, show me the benefit of your reading.

100 posted on 07/18/2005 1:34:26 PM PDT by SpringheelJack
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