Mosque caught between funding woes, opposition
After decade of difficulties, leaders appeal to Muslims around world for donations
MANCHESTER, N.H.— The same financial difficulties that face houses of worship across the U.S. have stalled a 10-year effort by New Hampshire’s small Muslim community to construct their first mosque — and build a bridge to their non-Muslim neighbours who never wanted it there in the first place.
A decade after the still-unfinished red brick structure began rising out of a stony hillside overlooking the Merrimack Valley, the Islamic Society of New Hampshire says it has raised about $2 million (U.S.) for the project, less than half of what it needs to complete construction.
Now the society, which relies on donations from its very small local Muslim community, is casting a wider net — to Muslims around the world — hoping to raise enough to finish the building before it deteriorates past the point of saving.
“Everywhere else mosques are being built, the Muslim population itself is pretty dense and much higher compared to what we have in New Hampshire,” said Mohammad Islam, chairman of the mosque’s building committee. “And within that, the percentage of affluent Muslims, professionals in the space of doctors, engineers and businessmen, is much higher. Over here, we’re hitting the same group of people again and again for donations.” The number of mosques in the United States rose from 1,209 in 2000 to 2,106 in 2011, the latest year for which data is available, according to a report issued by the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Over roughly the same period, the number of Muslims fell in New Hampshire, from an estimated 3,782 adherents in 2000 to 1,616 in 2010, ranking the northeastern state 46th, according to the Association of Religion Data Archives.
The numbers of Muslims, like estimates of any faith group, need to be viewed cautiously: because the U.S. Census doesn’t ask about religion, counts rely on self-reporting, institutional estimates and, often, extrapolation.
The small centres can’t handle major festivals like Eid al-Fitr or Eid al-Adha, so the New Hampshire society has rented out stadiums and university gymnasiums for bigger events. The 17,000-square-foot mosque would provide a central gathering place and realize a goal dating to 1987.
In 1998, the society bought 1.1 hectares to build a true mosque, a dometopped, three-story octagonal structure with plenty of prayer and meeting space. Construction started eight years later and, beyond fundraising, there were hurdles from the start. Zoning challenges came from neighbours who worried their quiet way of life would come to an end, ruined by cars spilling out of the parking lot and lining the street. In 2013, some kids smashed windows, causing more than $30,000 in damage.
There were strong, sometimes harsh, words. In 2006, Douglas Lambert, a Gilford businessman, wrote an op-ed piece in a newspaper in which he mused: “How many mosques have been used throughout the Moslem (sic) world as ammo dumps and hideouts for murderous thugs?”
Now 51, Lambert said he has spent a lot of time “agonizing” about whether he still feels the same.
“And I do,” he said, while acknowledging there are “no doubt good and moderate Muslims.”