Charlottetown Mosque offers Island Muslim community a place for prayer LAURA YORKE The Guardian

Ghassan Takriti, left, and Sohail Hashmi pray at the Charlottetown Mosque Tuesday afternoon. The mosque is located in the basement of Canterbury Cove store and is open seven days a week. Guardian photo

The room is small but bright, with high ceilings.
The walls are painted a pleasant pale green colour.
Bookshelves display Islamic literature. There are several small rugs arranged on the floor and curtains hang from the middle of the ceiling.
It’s not fancy but it does the trick.
The Charlottetown Mosque has been open to the city’s Muslim community for five years now. It doesn’t look like how most would picture a mosque — with elaborate domes and minarets — but it is, by definition, a mosque.
Prayers take place five times a day every day, with the first at 5:45 a.m. and the last at 7:15 p.m. Every Friday afternoon, about 60 people congregate for prayer during Juma. As well, a Sunday Madressa takes place from 12:05 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
The Friday prayer is the most important, said owner Sohail Hashmi.
“We should all try to be here and we should not miss it.”
Ghassan Takriti moved to P.E.I. in August. He said the Charlottetown Mosque suits his needs for a place to pray.
“It’s enough for the Muslim community on P.E.I. Our community is small.”
There are approximately 250 Muslims on the Island, a population that is growing. There are currently three other places for prayer and other events to take place.
The Sherwood Recreation Centre has had a social gathering for Muslims every Sunday for the past 20 years; Parkdale Elementary School has an Islamic school for children every Sunday; and UPEI has a prayer congregation every Friday.
But a spokesperson for the P.E.I. Muslim Society said the Charlottetown Mosque does not accommodate the Island’s growing Muslim population.
At a meeting held in March of 2008, a decision was made to go ahead with the plans to build a larger centre to hold not only prayer meetings but other events as well, the spokesperson said.
Any events such as potluck dinners or social gatherings are often held in rented halls, he said.
One upcoming event is Eid, the feast of sacrifice, which will be held at the end of the month and could bring out about 150 Muslims.
The current mosque cannot hold that many people, he said.
Since the meeting last March the P.E.I. Muslim Society has been actively raising funds through donations.
It has contacted government to look at surplus land and buildings available but has at no point asked for money from the government, said the spokesperson.
“The Muslim Society did not and does not expect any handouts of public funds from government. We do not expect taxpayers’ money to be involved in this.”
The Charlottetown Mosque is privately owned by Hashmi, the spokesperson said.
“We believe that a place of worship should be owned by the community,” said the spokesperson, who asked not to be named.
The society is grateful that Hashmi allows for his basement to be available for prayer, but in the long run the Muslim community would be better suited with a building that is above ground and is accessible to the elderly and handicapped, he said.
“It’s a temporary solution that satisfies up to a point.”
A mosque does not have to be extravagant in design, said Hashmi. It simply needs to be clean and dry and available for prayer five times a day, as well as Juma on Fridays.
“A lot of times we forget — Christians, Muslims and Jews — that we have to be simple.”
In the time of the Prophet Muhammad mosques were even made of clay and mud and had a roof made of leaves.
As long as people have a place to pray they are set, he said.
“Importance is given mostly to prayers — nothing else.”
People who claim there is no mosque in Charlottetown or saying it’s not a proper one are wrong, Hashmi said.
“We do have a place here to pray and everybody is welcome.”