Mosque calls the faithful and the curious

LA MARQUE — This blue-collar town in the Bible Belt isn’t a place most people would expect to find a mosque under construction.

But Friday, crews wielding shrieking power saws and pneumatic hammers were working to complete the small, unassuming building at 2611 FM 1765, near Union Street, on the edge of a working-class neighborhood.

The place of worship — Masjid Al-Fattah — will become the first permanent mosque in the county’s mainland. There are no large domes or minarets to embellish this mosque, a gray metal building surrounded by a cyclone fence.

There is nothing to indicate that five times each day — at daybreak, midday, midafternoon, sunset and nightfall — the faithful will be called to this building where they will remove their shoes, wash their hands, face and feet, kneel on a clean spot and pray toward Mecca.

There is enough room for about 100 worshippers.

Modest is exactly the way Abdul-Rahman Salahuddin, president of the Islamic League of America, wants the 2,000-square-foot mosque to be.

“We just want a place where people can worship the creator,” Salahuddin said. “We want a decent-looking place. We do not want to waste money building something for show.”

The $100,000 mosque was made possible by donations from La Marque and Texas City Muslims, Salahuddin said.

Al-Fattah is one of many adjectives to describe Allah. Loosely translated, it means “Allah holds the keys to all doors.”

Salahuddin moved to Texas City in 1974. The same year, he founded the 15-member Islamic League of America. He said he wants the mosque to serve mainland Muslims who might not have the means to travel to other cities.

While there’s the Galveston Islamic Center and other places of worship in the Clear Lake area, there isn’t a neighborhood center for Muslims on the mainland, Salahuddin said.

Mid-county Muslims — about 20 families — have been gathering and worshipping at temporary mosques on the mainland. Masjid Al-Fattah also would serve Muslims in Hitchcock, Santa Fe, San Leon and other mainland communities.

There are no readily available statistics about how many Muslims live in Galveston County, and estimates vary about how many live in the United States. In 2007, The Pew Research Center estimated 5 million Muslims were living in the United States.

The Islamic League of America owns about half an acre at Union Street and FM 1765.

Salahuddin, who graduated from the Wichita State University in 1972 with a degree in history after serving nine years in the U.S. Air Force, and the league’s treasurer, Mohammed Vohra, hope to raise more money to build a community center next to the mosque. The center would be open to all, they said.

Salahuddin, who teaches literacy courses at College of the Mainland, would like to offer GED and English as a second language courses at the community center, he said. The community center also eventually would offer drug rehabilitation services, they said.

Islam has a strong focus on family values, Salahuddin said.

Construction of the mosque has attracted curious neighbors, Salahuddin and Vohra said. But all have welcomed the mosque, the men said.

Soon, a sign will go up with the mosque’s name. City ordinances forbid the use of a loudspeaker for the Islamic call to prayer.

The Muslim community in the area includes Hispanics and African-Americans, they said.

“This mosque is tied to this neighborhood,” Salahuddin, now a La Marque resident, said. “That is the appeal.”

Work on Masjid Al-Fattah is expected to be complete in about three weeks, the men said.

For information, call 409-354-8873.