McGill mosque location eyed by Islamic Association

MICHAEL POTESTIO STAFF REPORTER michael@kamloopsthisweek.com

The Kamloops Islamic Association (KIA) is hoping to fulfill a years long goal of moving its Ayesha Mosque from its current rural location in Knutsford to within the city limits of Kamloops.

In a press release, the association said it has identified a cityowned piece of property along the McGill corridor it would like to purchase from the municipality to support relocation and building of a multi-million-dollar mosque.

On Tuesday, a KIA delegation appeared before city council to provide an update of its initiatives and the potential for expansion of programs as well as their growing community’s need for mosque relocation.

In 2021, KIA received a letter of support for the move in town from the previous city council.

According to KIA, the growth of its outreach programs in Kamloops has exceeded the capacity of its existing rural mosque and with- out a more central location in Kamloops the activities and community services the KIA provide have become limited and unable to grow due to capacity and accessibility challenges. Due to the limited building size, all of KIA’s large events are currently held off site, and what is held on-site is limited to Friday service and annual Ramadan events.

The Knutsford location, though it could be expanded, lacks accessibility and lack of municipal services such as water, sewage and transit, which would not be the case with a McGill-located mosque.

The new mosque would enable them to better collaborate with interfaith and non-profit groups, provide a more convenient location for university students and others and expand their services to the whole of Kamloops.

KIA also expects Thompson Rivers University — located near where the mosque would be built — to continue recruiting international students who are Muslim, further increasing demand from students looking to access

KIA services.

According to the KIA, the most common feedback it receives from its membership is that the Knutsford mosque is not easily accessible being located outside of Kamloops. The facility is also subject to frequent boil-water advisories from Interior Health.

The KIA also feels it can assist in recruiting doctors to Kamloops, noting there have been 16 doctors — including three in 2023 — 10

TRU professors, five engineers and three medical sonographers among the members they have lost, having moved away over the years.

The KIA said most of these individuals cited an inaccessible mosque location and its limited programing among the reasons they moved.

In 2009, following an influx of Muslim students at TRU, the KIA began discussing relocation, as the current mosque is not easily acces- sible to students. The association remained focused on renovations of the Knutsford property while acknowledging the relocation discussion would surface again in the future.

Since moving to Knutsford in 2007, more than 100 families joined the mosque, up from 34 families when the KIA moved to Knutsford. Almost half of the 100 families have moved away from Kamloops, the KIA stated.

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