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The first mosque in Zion is officially open to worshippers of Islam, and those who wish to learn about Ahmadi Muslims and the group’s long-standing history in the city.
The inauguration ceremony of the Fath-e-Azeem Mosque was a well-attended event on Oct. 1, following months of planning and coordinating with city officials and members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community, locally and from across the country.
The celebration was highlighted by a visit from the world head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community, Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, who traveled from the organization’s headquarters in the United Kingdom to Zion days before the festivities began.
Ahmad delivered the keynote address at the reception. The mosque, he said, is significant and special for more than one reason.
“Indeed, it is widely important for all religious communities to have places of worship where their members can congregate,” Ahmad said.
The mosque not only enables Muslims to worship God and “fulfill their religious duties and obligations to their faith,” but also serves to introduce Islam and its teachings to the wider community, he said.
“[The community’s] knowledge and understanding of Islam will increase, and any fears or concerns they harbor will, God willing, dissipate upon seeing Muslims living peacefully among them and contributing positively,” Ahmad said.
The new mosque is a 12,600-square-foot building that sits on 10 acres at the corner of Lewis Avenue and 27th Street.
The Ahmadi community for years occupied a house turned community center on Gabriel Avenue, where lack of space was often an issue when they hosted regular community food pantries and blood drives.
The land on Lewis Avenue was purchased in 2016, and the group was given the green light by the city to begin construction that same year.
The total cost of the project was just under $4.4 million, officials said.
Lajna Ima’illah, the group’s women’s auxiliary, was the primary fundraiser, with members from throughout the country’s 63 chapters collecting $1.7 million, Zion resident Dhiya Bakr said.
Bakr is the national president of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA Women’s Auxiliary, of which locally there are 67 members.
Lit by tiny lights surrounding its architecture, the building shines bright come nightfall behind a wall of trees. The prayer room accommodates up to 310 people. And the basement is a large community center with a kitchen.
Local community groups are welcome to hold meetings there, according to officials.
A particular point of pride for the group is a state-of-the-art exhibition hall.
Visitors are welcome to gain an understanding of one historic occurrence that began more than a century ago in the very city the mosque sits on today — one that ties the group’s roots to Zion’s very foundation, and has been taught to generations of Ahmadi Muslims.
It was dubbed a “prayer duel” between John Alexander Dowie and the Ahmadiyya Muslim community founder Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. Dowie was an evangelical minister and faith healer who founded Zion City in 1901.
Although he preached for utopia, he made proclamations against other religious groups and advocated for their demise of Muslims, said Ibrahim Ahmed Ijaz, who acted as tour guide during the event.
Ghulam Ahmad asked for Dowie to put his wrath on him and no others, and he posed a challenge to him in 1902. In his writings he said, “whoever is the liar may perish first.”
“The prayer duel is something that the press picked up like wildfire,” Ijaz said.
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This challenge is depicted through more than 150 newspaper articles from across the globe on display on interactive touch screens in the exhibit hall.
Other items can be seen in display cases, such as publications started by Dowie and Ghulam Ahmad, and Qurans translated into various languages, including Braille.
Dowie died in disgrace after a scandal over his mismanagement of Zion City finances at age 60, a year before Ghulam Ahmad died at 73.
The translation of the name of the mosque in English from Arabic is “A great victory” mosque. The theme of the exhibition is of a great victory of prayer over prejudice, Ijaz said.
Different sections of the museum provide information on the teachings of Islam, and a more detailed account of all of the religious history Ahmadis follow.
At the ceremony, Zion Mayor Bill McKinney presented the key to the city to Ahmad, who graciously accepted it and thanked him.
“Here in Zion, our motto is historic past and dynamic future,” McKinney said. “This beautiful mosque in the heart of our city exemplifies that motto.”
One final touch on the mosque is expected to be completed next year. The minaret is a global symbol of Islam, and the faith’s call to prayer five times a day.