Mosque to be built on Tucson's northwest side

Construction on a mosque is to begin this summer on Tucson’s northwest side, adding to an already existing multipurpose building near North La Cañada Drive and West River Road.

The approximately 7,500-square-foot mosque will be an add-on to 12,650 square feet of gymnasium and classrooms that opened at 5100 N. Kevy Place last June. The mosque will feature a dome and a 40-foot minaret.

The Muslim Community Center of Tucson plans to submit drawings of the new mosque to the county next week. It would like to see construction completed by the first quarter of 2017, said Maqsood Ahmad, a board member at the mosque.

Construction for the first phase of the community center started in November 2014 and lasted eight months, costing about $800,000. Phase 2 is estimated to cost $750,000, and the community is still fundraising. Vendors including architect Ahmed & Associates and contractor Coronado Custom Homes provided free services, Ahmad said.

Already, 250 to 300 Muslims are attending Friday prayers, kneeling on runners rolled out on the gym floor. The expanded mosque will have a mezzanine where the women will pray.

“The whole idea is to service the Muslim community in all of its aspects, whether the religious needs or the social needs,” said Ahmed Gaber, a board member.

That’s why the multipurpose building was built before the actual mosque. The vision for a new center for the community, and specifically for young people and families to gather, dates to 2003, when a group of local Muslims purchased the land for more than $200,000.

For years, nothing happened as the community focused on the growth and financial stability of the Islamic Center of Tucson near the University of Arizona.

That has long been the main mosque for the 8,000 to 10,000 Sunni Muslims in Tucson. But with limited parking, traffic and high-rise student housing units surrounding it, there’s no space to grow near campus.

The new center is already hosting monthly family fun events, along with Arabic classes and healthcare clinics for the community.

“The JCC is a great role model for us, taking care of community needs, having guest speakers, and doing things for the general community,” Ahmad said, referring to the Tucson Jewish Community Center. “But we’re just starting the phase of growing pains.”

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The Muslim Community Center won’t replace the mosque near the UA, despite recent issues with residents from neighboring apartments tossing debris into the Islamic Center’s parking lot.

“The ICT is there to stay,” said Ahmed Meiloud, the outgoing president of the Islamic Center’s board. “The ICT caters to primarily students, professors, people on campus and working in that area of town. It’s in a central location and has no plans to relocate anywhere.”

Depending on where Muslims work and live, they might bounce between centers for convenience, Meiloud said.

Although the two centers are separate, they serve the same community. In fact, some of the Muslim Community Center’s leadership have backgrounds at the Islamic Center, including Ahmad, Gaber and Imam Watheq Alobaidi.

About four years ago, Bart Peters and his wife lived about 25 minutes from the Islamic Center and attended community prayer by commuting or with a small group on the east side.

When the Muslim Community Center opened, the couple followed it, moving northwest despite Peters’ electrical engineering work near Broadway and Country Club Road.

“It’s easier to be connected to the community” and stop by for morning and evening prayers, Peters said.

To accommodate the growing Friday prayer services and special events, neighbor Northside Church of Christ has offered the mosque its parking lot. The two houses of worship have exchanged campus tours and conversation.

“Our neighbors opened our hearts and our imagination,” Ahmad said of the relationship, which has encouraged the mosque’s food bank and interfaith work.

About 30 years ago, Northside Church of Christ was in the same position, as an offshoot from another Tucson church.

“Tucson is getting bigger,” said Henry Sautter, an elder at the church. “You have to reach out to where the folks are.”