DEARBORN, May 14: Hundreds of worshipers gathered on Friday for the first prayer session at a gilded new mosque that is yet another facility to serve the large Muslim population around Detroit. A gold-domed mosque flanked by two minarets and a banquet hall were part of a $14 million expansion project to a Muslim school that, taken together, is now the Islamic Center of America, a 70,000 square-foot (6,500 sq meters) facility.

When a 700-seat auditorium and a two-story library and school are also completed, it will likely become the largest Islamic center in North America, Muslim officials said.

“The center is a symbol of the sharp growth and advancement of our Muslim community,” Imam Hassan al-Qazwini, the spiritual leader of the mosque, told Reuters.

The main prayer hall accommodates 1,000 people, including 700 men in one area and 300 women in a balcony. Builders imported doors from Turkey, wood from the Philippines, granite from India and Brazil, and chandeliers from Egypt, said Alan Abbas, who built the center.

“It has been a labor of love,” said Abbas, an immigrant from Lebanon. The mosque is only a few kilometres from the new Arab American National Museum, the first museum in the United States dedicated exclusively to Arab Americans. It also opened its doors this month.

Al-Qazwini said a major goal of the new mosque will be to reach out to non-Muslims to educate people about Islam. “This center will offer a great opportunity for non-Muslims to come and learn about Islam,” he said. “There are many misconceptions existing in the mind of non-Muslims in this country about Islam, unfortunately.”—Reuters