Anecdotes about Mosques
Talking to my Grandfather over a week ago, he mentioned the fact that a new Mosque was being built soon in nearby Orlando. He had earlier sent a rendering of the proposed building to me. During our conversation, the he mentioned that he had seen the building, and it was exetremely run down. Over the next several minutes, I discussed a similar situation going on in Norman, Oklahoma, with a mosque right off the OU campus. Having been to the mosque, I can attest, that the interior of the Mosque is also having trouble, with a minor bug issue. It will soon be demolished to make way for a new building in the area.
However, it might go some way towards explaining the current issues in the US , which I like to call the Green Scare. Buildings appropriated during the 70’s and 80’s, when the Muslim population in the US first began to rise significantly, have gone long past there expiration dates and require replacement. This combined with a larger Muslim population, mean that new, purpose built mosques are now seen as reasonable and possible, when collections can be that much larger. Many people are scared of increased visibility of Islam in the United States as a result of radical nutballs overseas, and many of these proposed buildings (Not just these, but a proposed complex in Sanford that can accomadate 1,000 worshippers with a community center and a full K-12 school inside, and some proposed mosques that have been in the news, like the one in Temecula and Murfreesboro) serve as a physical and visual representation of this.
As a slight aside, my Grandfather is a very tolerant, if somewhat blunt man. He has also comment that he thought the Dearborn Mosque was beautiful.
Also, to end on a good note, I will provide a rendering of something Decatur Deb was thinking about:
re: #297 Decatur Deb
That was stereotyping OK a little, I have a thing about Federal day care. Truly, If I were designing mosques anywhere in the country they would be nice hard earth-sheltered buildings with lots of exits and low fire loads.
Contrary to some beliefs, it is possible to have a mosque look this and maintain some aspects of a traditional mosque. A personal “rendering” is at the bottom
The current Masjid Al-Malik in Orlando
The proposed for the current Masjid Al-Malik
The proposed replacement for the current Masjid An-Nur
The Proposed Masjid Al-Salaam of Sanford, Fla
The mosque in Dearborn mentioned by my Grandfather