YUKON – Local Muslims in Whitehorse city, in Canada’s Northwestern Yukon territory, will get their first mosque soon after the territory government has announced plans to give $75,000 to the Yukon Muslim Society to build their first worshipping house.

“This is not only a mosque, this is a community center we’re building,” Muhammad Javed, the society’s organizer, told Yukon News.

The funding decision, announced this week, came to help convert the old Canadian Freightway building on 2nd Avenue into the Whitehorse Islamic Community Centre and Mosque.

The Muslim society is currently in the process of purchasing the building, amid hopes of getting the property by September.

Purchasing the property is a milestone for the society, but the Muslim community will still have to raise more funds to help with the renovations.

Receiving the government’s funding, the society plans to have the community center and mosque ready by March 2018.

Currently, the Yukon Muslim Society rents an office space on Front Street that is not very visible.

Javed hopes that once they are on 2nd Avenue it will help them integrate further into the community.

The space will be open to non-Muslims too, and the society is working with other organizations to set up a soup kitchen and a food bank.

“We’re open to anything that we can do to make the community a better place,” said Yusuf Legere, a volunteer with the society.

The society has been working with Zubaidah Tallab Foundation, a Manitoba-based Islamic charity to help with fundraising for the mosque and community center.

The foundation has also helped set up mosques in other northern communities.

Planning their first mosque and community center, Javed hopes it will offer would-be residents a place for their children to get cultural and religious education.

“It gives the opportunity for people to move here, but not only move here but stay here,” he said.