‘Ever-living mosque’
CULTIMILLION-DOLLAR house Of worship is a TESTAMENT TO HROWINH CUSLIM POPULATION in CENTRAL Florida
Aminaret rises above former pasture land south of Sanford, Florida, beckoning the Muslim faithful to a new mosque that took seven years and millions of dollars to build.
Leaders at Masjid-al-hayy — the name means “ever-living mosque” in Arabic — say they hope the 43,000-square-foot building becomes a gathering place for Muslims throughout Central Florida. The mosque, which replaces a worship center that was in a 5,000-square-foot former church nearby, is indicative of the growth of the area’s Muslim community.
“It’s an awesome, awesome building — very impressive,” said Atif Fareed, director of the interfaith and outreach committee at American Muslim Community Centers in Longwood. “We are very proud of what they have accomplished. They have set the bar very high, and now we will have to catch up. They have done a fantastic job.”
The mosque, one of the most elaborate in North America, took 15 months to design and seven years to build. The cost wasn’t officially disclosed, but estimates ranged from $16 million to twice that amount.
The house of worship celebrated its grand opening in August with an invitation-only event that included fireworksbygrucci,anewyork firm known for creating shows for eight presidential inaugurations and four Olympics.
According to county records, the land is owned by Pennsylvania businessman Gulam Jaffer, who brought in artisans from Dubai, Turkey and other Middle Eastern countries to perform the intricate work. Jaffer travels to the area frequently, said Inayat Walli, president of the nonprofit Husseini Islamic Center of Florida, which was founded in the early 1990s and runs the mosque. He and his wife in February bought a $3 million house near Longwood. Jaffer, who associates said likes to keep a low profile, would not comment.
The family-run Jaffer Reachout Foundation was created to build and support the mosque, foundation documents show.
The domed building is made of 3 million pounds of white marble from the Greek island of Thassos, cut into pieces and fabricated for their specific location. The floor of the sacred Muslim shrine the Kaaba in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, is composed of the same stone.
The carved doors are built from Honduran mahogany, and other materials came from Egypt, Turkey and Morocco. The wall outside the prayer hall is decorated with gold-rimmed flowers created from custom-made Italian mosaic tiles.
Worshippers kneel on thickly padded, handmade wool and silk carpet under custom-made Egyptian chandeliers, the largest one weighing 6,000 pounds.
Orb-shaped fountains in front of the building, lit in blue, green and red, are designed to reflect the beauty of the marble.
It’s among about 20 mosques in Central Florida that serve a Muslim population that grew tenfold between 2000 and 2010, from 2,691 to nearly 28,000, according to the U.S. Religion Census. The region’s weather has been a magnet for Muslims from the Northeast and Midwest, creating a need for more Islamic houses of worship.
About 85 percent of the Muslims in the world, including those in Central Florida, are Sunnis, but Masjid-al-hayy is a Shia mosque. The two sects diverged in the early days of Islam over who should succeed the Prophet Muhammad. Iran is the only country that has an overwhelming Shiite majority. Saudi Arabia and Egypt are among the nations with mostly Sunnis.
Masjid-al-hayy, which has about 350 member families, recently welcomed people of other religions as part of an ongoing series of interfaith events.
Members hope to dispel negative notions of their religion by getting to know their Central Florida neighbors.
“We are all worshipping the one God in our different ways,” said Imam Mujtaba Khaliq, who leads prayers at the mosque. “The goal is to get together and learn from one another and respect each other.”