Mosque open to everyone
Community welcome to centre
THE Garden City Mosque has continued its support of religious and cultural harmony with a low-profile open day.
As part of the National Mosque Open Day, the gates to the West St centre were opened to the community which, due to ongoing construction on the site, was kept low profile.
But it didn’t dull the significance of the day for Islamic Society of Toowoomba founding president Professor Shahjahan Khan, who said it was critical to remain open with the community.
“The whole idea is to bridge the gap and make the understanding to live in peace and harmony,” he said.
“Sometimes people wrongly mistake a mosque as an exclusive place. It has never been an exclusive place.
“Toowoomba can be proud of this religious and cultural harmony which is not available in many other places.”
Prof. Khan said the Islamic community deliberately kept the national event in Toowoomba low-key due to the ongoing construction of the fire-ravaged mosque.
Construction is progressing on the new facility which is likely to be completed next year after two unsolved arson attacks in 2015.
Prof. Khan said worshippers had faith police would solve the crime after a recently renewed appeal for help from the community.
“The case is active and they are actively looking for the (suspect),” he said.
“We said in the past this person has committed a crime and by doing that has actually united the community beyond the religious and cultural boundaries.”