First glimpse of new £8.3m mosque
JON MACPHERSON
ANEW £8.3 million Accrington mosque is set to open later this year.
The Raza Jamia Masjid Mosque, being built between Grimshaw Street and Lower Antley Street, will be able to hold nearly 900 people for prayers and worship.
The development will also include a community centre which will be open to residents of all faiths and backgrounds for meetings, events and sporting activities.
Planning permission was approved back in June 2014 and the 1.3 acre site has been transformed over the last three years into the eye-catching two-storey facility.
Mosque leaders said they were hoping to open by May this year, however they are now aiming to complete the development by October.
Jawid Hussain, who manages the project, said: “It’s brilliant. It looks very good and very impressive. A lot of work has gone into it.
“It’s a very complicated building and there are a lot of features to it. It’s taken a bit longer than was originally forecast.”
Jawid said all the funding has come through private donations and that they will retain the old mosque on Grimshaw Street for evening classes.
The new mosque will include three prayer halls and a library and the community centre will feature an Islamic funeral room, community facilities and dining areas.
The site will also include a 71-bay car park with six disabled spaces.
Councillor Munsif Dad, who is a member of the mosque, said: “It’s all coming along very nicely. It’s a very large development and will be a facility for the whole community and for Muslims.
“It’s a large area to build on and it’s taken a bit longer than expected because the mosque management wanted to make sure everything was done right.”
Planning documents previously sent to Hyndburn council from the mosque said the replacement mosque facility will ‘endeavour to tackle some of the social exclusion and integration issues currently plaguing the society and will be a model for other cities’.
It said: “All the facilities within the new community centre will be open to the local community irrespective of their creed, colour or religion and indeed the local Muslim community welcomes the involvement of the local community for the benefit of integration and better understanding of cultural and religious needs of each other.”