COMMUNITY MATTERS Centro Islámico Mosque Coming Up
complaint in U.S. District Court in Camden alleging that the board’s refusal to approve the expansion violated the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA). The matter was resolved without any admission of liability by the township or the board. During its April 27 session, Brampton (Ont., Canada) city council renamed Sailwind Road Masjid Drive, which is located near Jamiat-ul-Ansar mosque.
Jaime “Mujahid” Fletcher
Centro Islámico has started constructing their 10,200-sq.-ft. mosque on a 2.5-acre lot in the Houston neighborhood of Alief. Once complete, it will include a prayer area, classrooms, event center, a cafe and lounge, as well as a 3,600-sq.-ft. production studio for producing its bilingual English– Spanish media content for distribution. A museum will highlight the contributions of al-Alandus in terms of medicine, mathematics, education and technology. Outdoors will be a basketball court, a soccer field, a playground, a pavilion and a courtyard. Like the museum, it will be designed with Andalusian characteristics,
among them vaulted ceilings and water fountains. Jaime “Mujahid” Fletcher (chief executive officer and founder, IslamInSpanish) told Religion News Service on April 15 that the costs of these improvements will total about $3 million, with $1 million left to raise. They have plans for another mosque in Dallas. A 2017 report published in the Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Religion estimated that the country’s 50,000 to 265,000 Latino Muslims are primarily concentrated in California, Texas, New York, New Jersey, Florida and Illinois. Many are former Catholics, and more mosques are now publishing Spanish literature. ih mosque — after turning down two earlier versions and delaying the process for three years.
New York governor Kathy Hochul hosted an iftar for Muslims from Buffalo to Brooklyn in the state’s capital. She remarked, “New York’s greatest strength is our diversity, and we are proud to lead with inclusivity and equality for all.” She thanked Imam Mansoor Rafiq Umar and Dr. Debbie Almontaser for their contributions to the state and their leadership. The Washington Township (N.J.) Zoning Board voted 6:1 in April to give its blessing to Minhal Academy’s 3,000-sq.-ft. 14
Imran Hasan, who helped spearhead the effort, said the Gloucester County township “gave us a very tough time.” In 2018, he had purchased a long-vacant cluster of three offices and drew up plans to move the mosque; however, building permission was denied. In January 2020, Minhal Academy filed a
ISLAMIC HORIZONS JULY/AUGUST 2022
“Muslim American Zakat Giving 2022,” a report released by the Muslim Philanthropy Initiative at Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at IUPUI, stated that Muslim Americans gave $1.8 billion in zakat to domestic and international causes during 2021. The average Muslim American household donated $2,070 to charity, said Shariq Siddiqui, assistant professor and program director of philanthropic studies. The largest beneficiaries were international nonprofits (25.3%), governments (21.7%) and domestic nonprofits (18.3%). The study’s findings also show that a substantial amount of zakat (14.7%) is still given informally, whether in person, to relatives or others, and through other remittances (12.7%). ih
ACHIEVERS Deqa Dhalac, MSW (Univ. of New Eng l and), MDP (Univ. of New Hampshire), was honored by her alma mater University of New Hampshire with the Sustainability Award — Graduate of Last Decade. Early this year she made history as the first elected Black, Muslim mayor in Maine, the City of South Portland, and the first Somali American mayor. She is past program manager for The Center for Grieving Children, former South Portland Schools Community Builder for the Opportunity Alliance, Somali Community Center of Maine, board president of the Maine Immigrant Rights Coalition and Maine Women’s Fund and Family Engagement and Cultural Responsiveness Specialist with the Maine Department of Education.
