{"id":7112,"date":"2024-09-18T17:19:33","date_gmt":"2024-09-18T21:19:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/?p=7112"},"modified":"2024-09-18T17:22:25","modified_gmt":"2024-09-18T21:22:25","slug":"sterling-heights-masjid-breaks-ground-on-5-5-million-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/sterling-heights-masjid-breaks-ground-on-5-5-million-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Sterling Heights masjid breaks ground on $5.5 million project"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Nargis Hakim Rahman<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Groundbreaking ceremony (Source: Nargis Hakim Rahman)<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

The American Muslim Diversity Association (AMDA) broke ground on a 20,000-square-foot facility in Sterling Heights, adding 14,000 square feet for a women\u2019s prayer area, gym, and library. The $5.5 million project aims to expand community programs, including a Quran hifz program.<\/p>\n

Afroza Akhter is a masjid attendee says she\u2019s excited about the changes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the community, not only Bengali but Muslim community around the world come here,\u201d Akhter says.<\/p>\n

Senator Michael Webber, who represents Michigan\u2019s 9th district encompassing the Greater Rochester Area, Troy, Sterling Heights, Shelby Township and Utica, says the groundbreaking is a momentous day.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust seeing some of the expansion that’s going to take place and some of the ideas that are going to be a part of that expansion is just tremendous,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Several religious leaders made remarks at the event.<\/p>\n

Imam Mustapha Elturk of the Islamic Organization of North America (IONA) says the expansion comes after a long struggle for Muslims who hoped to have a house of worship in Sterling Heights.<\/p>\n

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AMDA Groundbreaking (Source: Nargis Hakim Rahman)<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Imam Aly Lela says there were only a few masjids in Southeast Michigan about 60 years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can see the difference in how Islam is growing, Alhamdulillah, rabbil alameen,\u201d he says. \u201cSo this expansion is part of a bigger process, and we witness the birth of news, more importantly, the institutional growth that’s more even important.\u201d<\/p>\n

Masjid leaders say they are working on expanding programs as well, including a Quran hifz program with academic.<\/p>\n

Tahsin Asjad says she looks forward to bringing her daughters to the masjid to foster their connection with their faith and cultural heritage.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re having a lot more opportunities to connect with our roots and our religion, and for me personally, it means that I’m able to bring my daughters into this community too,\u201d Asjad says.<\/p>\n

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Affan Zinnuryne, 13, and Ayaan Bhuyan, 14, attended the groundbreaking ceremony and community event. (Source: Nargis Hakim Rahman)<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Affan Zinnuryne, 13, and Ayaan Bhuyan, 14, attended the groundbreaking ceremony and community event. (Source: Nargis Hakim Rahman)<\/em><\/p>\n

Ayaan Bhuyan, 14, is a high schooler at Athens High School. He says he\u2019s especially looking forward to the library.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really love to read, and it’s going to be an interesting experience,\u201d he says. \u201cIf you start going here, you’ll quickly be part of the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Santana Hill is the Chief of Staff for Detroit Mary Waters Councilmember At-Large. Hill says the council member has a lot of support from the American Muslim community.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was our chance to be involved in something historic and to support a large swath of the community outside of Detroit,\u201d Hill says.<\/p>\n

The expansion will add 14,000 square feet to the existing space. AMDA will add 90 parking spaces, a banquet hall, and a mortuary room for funeral services.<\/p>\n

AMDA has collected about $2 million over the last four years for the project. They hope to raise another $3.5 million to complete the project in three years.<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Nargis Hakim Rahman   The American Muslim Diversity Association (AMDA) broke ground on a 20,000-square-foot facility in Sterling Heights, adding 14,000 square feet for a women\u2019s prayer area, gym, and library. The $5.5 million project aims to expand community programs, including a Quran hifz program. Afroza Akhter is a masjid attendee says she\u2019s excited […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7116,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7112"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7118,"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7112\/revisions\/7118"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}