Mosque drawing Muslims to Prince George

Officials in Prince George, B.C., are pinning their hopes on the construction of the region's first mosque to help attract Muslim professionals and their families to the city.

Mayor Dan Rogers said he jumped at the chance to help the small Muslim community buy land for a mosque six years ago.

City councilvoted in 2004to rezone and sella city-ownedsiteto the mosque developers in a lease-to-own deal that eliminated the need for adown payment.

The$1.8 millionmosqueproject is part of the city's plan to re-invent itself as an education and medical services hub given that the area's main industry, forestry, is no longer viable.

"When we look to recruit professionals to work at the new cancer centre that's being built [or] when we look to recruit people who will take up the research challenge at our university this is a wise investment for us," said Rogers.

The community's Muslims will keep usingthe basement of the Knox United Churchfor prayers until the city's new mosque iscompleted this summer.

The mosque development required several years of fundraising by a small group of people, including Ibrahim Karido, who started drumming up support by first identifying the Muslims in the community using somecrude methods.

"I went through the telephone books, trying to see names which sounded a bit more Muslim," he said.

Community growing

Karido arrived in Prince George, 600 kilometres north of Vancouver,in 1993 and soon learned that many Muslims had tried out the city as a place to settle but never stayed long.

"What people tell us they are looking for is not money not anything else material. What is missing for them and their family is their spiritual need," said Karido.

He estimates the community has grown from 30 families a few years ago to 200 hundred families.

Iram Chaudrhy and her husband Tahir are both pediatricians whocame to Prince George to work at a local hospital. The advent of the new mosque and what it will provide has helped keep them in the city.

"A mosque is not just a place where we can get together as a community; it's where we welcome other communities," Chaudhry said.

Ridha Aktar, 15, who just moved with her parents to Prince George from South Africa, said the new building will make a big difference for her family.

"It's like a dream come true for us to have a mosque here," she said. "It makes the place better, and it's more welcoming to have a mosque here."