NIAGARA FALLS – In a city dotted with churches, Muslims in Pierece Avenue, Niagara Falls, are awaiting approval for their first mosque, a project seen as a force for faith, education, outreach, and community rejuvenation.

“There is a community who feels that they want to have a place of worship, there are a lot of people who requested this,” Dr. Mohamed Ahmed, the project leader, told Niagara Gazette on Monday, September 26.

“But the importance of the whole thing is really education. It’s about peace, community, sitting together and eating. That’s what we preach.”

Dr Ahmed is the medical director at Roswell Park’s hematology and oncology division in Niagara County.

He undertook his undergraduate and doctorate work at Aligarh Muslim University in India before he settled in Western New York in 2008.

Preliminary plans for the project were first discussed at a city Zoning Board of Appeals meeting earlier this week.

For Dr Ahmed, it will provide a place for youth recreation as well as educating local Muslims and those of other faiths about the tenants of Islam.

It will also draw some of the community’s 200 congregants into the area, have them clean up homes, live and possibly establish businesses in what he characterized as a “depressed” area.

“One way to do it is for people in the community to stand up and say, ‘Let’s get these youth and educate them,’ ” Ahmed said, adding that basketball and volleyball courts are planned for a property adjacent to Pierce Avenue, both of which were donated by congregants.

Open Doors

Planning the mosque, the Muslim leader said it will be open to all faiths and sects.

“It’s open to all faiths, not just Islam,” Ahmed said.

“We have a lot of community members that are married to Catholics or Protestants or some other religion.”

Plans for the mosque and its funding started five years ago, Ahmed said.

If approved by the Niagara Falls Planning Board, the project would take about 18 months to complete.

Emma Chapman, a Falls resident with an income property on Pierce Avenue who was present at Tuesday’s zoning board meeting, said she welcomes the project.

“I think it’s going to be a wonderful asset to the community, that’s a very depressed it area,” she said.

“I welcome it, I really do.”