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LATHAM
Ground broken for area’s newest mosque
Money is still being raised to complete $4 million first phase
BY BOB CONNER Gazette Reporter

   Political and religious leaders helped break ground Tuesday for construction of the Capital Region’s newest mosque.
   The Al-Hidaya Center, on 12.3 acres at 304 Troy-Schenectady Road, is being built by the Muslim Community of Troy. The community bought the land in 2001 and has been raising funds for the project. It has outgrown its current mosque on 15th Street in Troy, which was founded 28 years ago by students at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
   The first building phase, to construct the prayer hall, library, conference rooms and parking lot, is projected to cost $4 million. Plans call for the mosque to have a blue dome set between two minarets.
   The community’s imam, Djafer Sebkhaoui, said later that the money is still being raised and there is not yet enough on hand to complete the first phase. The community hopes to raise the money locally, he said.
   Phases two and three, including a school, multi-purpose gymnasium, daycare center and shopping center, would be built in the future.
   There are four other mosques in the Capital Region, three in Albany County and one in Schenectady. Abdulkadir Elmi, a Muslim Community of Troy board member who served as master of ceremonies at Tuesday’s event, estimated later that there are about 10,000 Muslims in the region. Also an imam, he lives in Clifton Park and works for the state as coordinating chaplain at Great Meadow Correctional Facility in Washington County.
   The Muslim Community of Troy, Elmi said in his presentation, is “a multinational community” that has established “a record of promoting solidarity, friendship and cooperation among all people.” It is, he said, “a community that is seriously committed to building bridges of understanding.”
   Sebkhaoui connected the groundbreaking to a prayer for “demolition of the grounds of hatred, of ignorance, of intolerance.”
   Colonie Supervisor Mary Brizzell said, “I give you a very, very warm welcome to the town of Colonie,” but added: “Boy, if I’d known this land was here I might have gotten it.” She said later she meant it might have made a good site for a park. The land was wooded, hilly and vacant when the Muslims bought it, Brizzell said, but at one time had been farmed. It has been largely cleared in readiness for the project.
   Another speaker was Assemblyman Jack McEneny, D-Albany, who said: “These are times when it is very difficult for people to express their faith and identity as a Muslim.” He blamed widespread ignorance of Islam, saying there is a history of tolerance in Muslim countries much superior to that of non-Muslim Europe.
   Sen. Neil Breslin, D-Delmar, said his father used to say, “Don’t ever trust anyone who says God is on their side,” because “God does not choose sides. … We are all brothers and sisters to make the world a better place.”
   A representative of Assemblyman Bob Reilly, D-Colonie, also made welcoming remarks, as did the Rev. Robert Lamar, a Presbyterian minister long active in Capital Region ecumenical activities. Also present were representatives of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, the Interfaith Alliance, other local mosques and Rabbi Aryeh Wineman of Temple Beth El in Troy.
   Asked later about Muslim-Jewish relations, Wineman said: “I’m on very close terms with the imams, especially this particular community. I couldn’t be closer. … Outside tensions are not relevant to our real relations.”
   The dignitaries took up shovels and posed for photos, then ate an early lunch of tandoori chicken and other Indian foods. Shortly before noon, a steamroller and bulldozer started up to get the real work under way.

ANA N. ZANGRONIZ/GAZETTE PHOTOGRAPHER From left, Sabr Aziza, Mokhtar Maghraoui and Mouath Sebkhaoui listen as Imam Djafer Sebkhaoui, right, leads a concluding blessing at the groundbreaking for the new mosque on Troy-Schenectady Road in Latham on Tuesday

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Sen. Neil Breslin, D-Delmar, said his father used to say, “Don’t ever trust anyone who says God is on their side,” because “God does not choose sides. … We are all brothers and sisters to make the world a better place.”