[LINK] "New Iqaluit mosque opens doors"

[rfmcdonald]

CBC reports on the completion of a mosque in Iqaluit, capital of Nunavut.

After years in the making, Iqaluit's new mosque held its inauguration Friday, officially opening as a place of worship.

The building will serve as a prayer space and a community centre for Iqaluit's 100 or so Muslims, as well as a place to learn about Islam.

"By establishing this mosque, we are saying one thing: we are now an integral part of Iqaluit, we are now a part of the Iqaluit community," said Hussain Guisti, the Zubaidah Tallab Foundation's general manager.

Members of the foundation, along with the Islamic Association of Nunavut, built the mosque themselves at a cost of $800,000. The foundation has also helped construct mosques in Inuvik, N.W.T., and Thompson, Manitoba.

"We just finished the mosque now. The guys were working outside underneath the mosque in –56 below," Guisti said. "I mean, that's treacherous. If you can build a mosque in Iqaluit, you can build it anywhere else on the planet."