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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: SpringheelJack
I don't see anything wrong with an extra effort to try to integrate Muslims into American society.

That's frightening.

21 posted on 07/16/2005 9:34:32 PM PDT by quantim (I'm at the point now where I refer to all liberals as "insurgents.")
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To: softwarecreator
Funny, I don't see these kind of stories when Catholic's Dream are realized and a new church is built.

Right! Why is that? Could it be the catholics are not out to destroy the western world through terrorism so they are unworthy of attention? Maybe if they started killing innocents and had homicide bomber brigades, our pathetic politicians would take them seriously and bend over to appease them?
22 posted on 07/16/2005 9:40:16 PM PDT by Wolfhound777 (It's not our job to forgive them. Only God can do that. Our job is to arrange the meeting)
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To: BigFinn
Coming soon to a town near you.

MEIN KAMPF = MEIN KORAN

ALLAHU AKBAR! = HEIL HITLER!

23 posted on 07/16/2005 9:40:33 PM PDT by Travis McGee (----- www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com -----)
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To: All
The Clinton / Reno Justice Dept's FBI, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) so feared and were so convinced that a kind of Christian "jihad" (my word, not theirs) was in the making due to Y2k that they put together Project Megiddo. Some reports include the post-OKC bombing creation, the State and Local Anti-Terrorism Training (SLATT) program as well as the ADL and SPLC.

(Meanwhile the jetliner flying lessons continued, a Muslim money pipeline connected to terrorist groups, and nobody with power in Washington cared.)

What if a few Christian extremists had come out of churches shooting at 0001 hours on 1 Jan., 2000?

What if, with a tiny number of exceptions, the Christian community's only comments were "the event was just awful, violence against Christians must stop also, we must stop all violence, stop picking on us, let us teach you about Christianity."

There'd be no government officials at a church opening that's what.

Is this whining? NO. If the conditions were as I described there should be no government officials at a church except to arrest suspected terrorists. Ditto mosques.

24 posted on 07/16/2005 9:41:29 PM PDT by WilliamofCarmichael (Hillary is the she in shenanigans.)
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To: Travis McGee

Not coming to my town, I can assure you of that :)


25 posted on 07/16/2005 9:41:34 PM PDT by Wolfhound777 (It's not our job to forgive them. Only God can do that. Our job is to arrange the meeting)
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To: SpringheelJack
As Britain shows, cutting them off into their own ghettos with no attention paid from the outside culture just produces a breeding ground for drugs and radical politics. Maybe they do need something like this attention.

You are joking, right? NOBODY has "cut them off into their own ghettos" but themselves! It is their choice, their education, their mandate to live in their own Muslim enclaves, and avoid the "contamination" of the "infidels."

26 posted on 07/16/2005 9:42:24 PM PDT by Travis McGee (----- www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com -----)
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To: Wolfhound777

One hopes!


27 posted on 07/16/2005 9:43:01 PM PDT by Travis McGee (----- www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com -----)
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To: Wolfhound777
Maybe if they started killing innocents and had homicide bomber brigades, our pathetic politicians would take them seriously and bend over to appease them?

It's so crazy, it just ... might ... work! =)

28 posted on 07/16/2005 9:43:36 PM PDT by softwarecreator (Facts are to liberals as holy water is to vampires)
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To: Travis McGee

We just need to recognize the threat, get united, and have the conviction to do what's necessary when the time comes.


29 posted on 07/16/2005 9:44:38 PM PDT by Wolfhound777 (It's not our job to forgive them. Only God can do that. Our job is to arrange the meeting)
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To: Wolfhound777

I wasn't saying that Britain consciously put them into ghettos. They just ignored them, like most of the rest of Europe has, and that's how it ended up.

As for the rest of your post, I think you sweep a pretty broad brush with your word "they". I think plenty of Muslims are capable of joining the modern world. Living with the rest of America, instead of living apart, may help more join in.


30 posted on 07/16/2005 9:45:25 PM PDT by SpringheelJack
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To: Wolfhound777

Yep, we're not disarmed Brits or Frogs.


31 posted on 07/16/2005 9:45:47 PM PDT by Travis McGee (----- www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com -----)
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To: Wolfhound777

That's what you think! I live in the freakin' buckle of the Bible belt and it's here.


32 posted on 07/16/2005 9:45:57 PM PDT by Minus_The_Bear
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To: BigFinn

So when do they start to recruit for "bombers" for the midwest?


33 posted on 07/16/2005 9:47:54 PM PDT by Dallas59 (" I have a great team that is going to beat George W. Bush" John Kerry -2004)
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To: SpringheelJack

You are right in a sense. We shouldn't ignore them like Britain did, we should actually deal with the problem and take them out. No hate preachers from the mosques, no terrorist financing from bogus charities, and damn sure HLS needs to get off it's ass and kill the sleepers in the middle of the night.


34 posted on 07/16/2005 9:50:00 PM PDT by Wolfhound777 (It's not our job to forgive them. Only God can do that. Our job is to arrange the meeting)
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To: Minus_The_Bear

here in KS the Islamic centers spring up around universities as well.
The Muslim kids pay cold hard cash to the university, so they are recruiting all over the Mid-East....and at international student tuition rates, it a big business..
For the parents, it's a big bragging thing, to send the kids off to the UK or US to University.

From what I have gathered there was a big push during the mid to late 90's to expand the physical infrastructure in islamic community in the US. Thus the "Islamic Center" has emerged in every university town in KS. Most of the people involved eventually admit that a large portion of this money comes from the Saudi Royals. It's their version of philanthropy..

The system allows the muslim students to maintain themselves as a community seperate and outside of the mainstream university community.
For the Wahabi/Fundie islamist, our western society was so completly evil it was corrupting too many of their kids who came here. The system allows the kids to stay away from the rest and they even operate their own off-record banking system for the students and professors.

There are Arabic classes, Koran readings, and "Lifestyle" classes in the centers.

They recruit on campus from minorities and dissaffected types. The young muslim students will go out on evenings and look for "loners" and befriend them. It's kinda like the mormon kids, except the islamic center guys do this every weekend, not just when they are on their "mission".
Islamic leaderership comes from the local community, though that usually aligns itself with a regional mosque.
The calls to prayer have started, though they don't use speakers or amplify it, but if you are on the south end of campus it is easily heard on friday night.


35 posted on 07/16/2005 9:50:03 PM PDT by Will_Zurmacht
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To: BigFinn

It would be ironic if the Gov. drove a car, without being accompanied by her husband, to the mosque. When is the next election, BTW?


36 posted on 07/16/2005 9:50:56 PM PDT by Frank_2001
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To: BigFinn
As part of the grand opening ceremony, there were readings from the Quran.

Like these?


37 posted on 07/16/2005 9:51:16 PM PDT by Prince Charles
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To: Travis McGee
You are joking, right? NOBODY has "cut them off into their own ghettos" but themselves! It is their choice, their education, their mandate to live in their own Muslim enclaves, and avoid the "contamination" of the "infidels."

And for those reasons I suspect it's a good thing that Sebelius and all those others chose to "contaminate" them with their visit.

Letting these Muslims live apart and in a cloistered mental atmosphere just invites this kind of radical separatism.

38 posted on 07/16/2005 9:51:28 PM PDT by SpringheelJack
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To: BigFinn

I hope the construction guys put plenty of bugs in the air vents.


39 posted on 07/16/2005 9:51:41 PM PDT by Captainpaintball
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To: All

Ok ..how f*cking stupid is this country ..unreal just unreal.
ok lets think od a name for this place being as it dosen't have one yet,,
Temple of Doom perhaps?


40 posted on 07/16/2005 9:56:12 PM PDT by hineybona
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