The proposed site for a new Muslim community center is located at the corner of Route 26 and Sheedy Road in Vestal.
Source/Credit: Press Connects
By David Robinson | February 19, 2013
VESTAL — When Afzal Rehman arrived here more than 20 years ago for a medical residency, he didn’t know of any others locally who shared his religious faith.
Rehman, an Ahmadiyya Muslim, soon left Johnson City to continue his medical training, spending time in Georgia and Wisconsin, but chose to return to New York and moved to Vestal in 1997 with his wife to raise their family.
Now 52, the cardiologist with three children recalled the decision to return to the Southern Tier as an obvious choice, even though fellow members of his Muslim sect had yet to begin settling in the region at the time.
“This is the first place I came to in the U.S., so it felt like home,” said Rehman, who studied medicine in London after leaving Pakistan.
Today, so many Ahmadiyya families have joined Rehman in the Tier — about 60 people in all — that he recently started looking into constructing a Muslim community center, a plan that is currently being considered for approval by town officials.
“Gradually more people came here and some are related, but not all of them,” he said, noting his sister and her family arrived initially before others were soon drawn to the region.
The resulting close-knit religious community, which differs from other Muslim sects served by area Islamic organizations, plans to build the 2,640-square-foot center on a vacant parcel it purchased on Sheedy Road, just off Route 26 in the sprawling hills overlooking town, Rehman said. The group of local residents is raising money for the project, including the $55,000 paid in December for the property.
He described the center as a “place of worship” similar to a Catholic church, saying the main difference is that, instead of Sundays, his congregation gathers for prayer on Fridays.
“Currently we don’t have a place to do that, so we do that in people’s homes,” Rehman said, adding the limited space makes it tough
to accommodate the growing number of families.
For special religious events and larger gatherings, Rehman said the group also has occasionally rented space, including at the India Cultural Centre in Vestal, which is across the street from his proposed community center site.
Like a church or cultural facility, the Muslim center would also offer a variety of activities and services to the community, ranging from charitable efforts to social gatherings, he said.
Rehman, who is a chapter president for the national Ahmadiyya Muslim Community organization, presented the center proposal to the Vestal Planning Board during a meeting on Tuesday night.
Edward Zimmer, who has served on the planning board for more than a decade, compared Rehman’s proposal to that of the nearby India center, saying both facilities shared common goals.
“I think that’s a good setting for it, and they’re more than welcome to open up a place to meet,” Zimmer said. “That’s how the India Cultural Centre got started, and they’re doing well up there.”
The planning board made a few suggestions about adjusting the Muslim center’s preliminary construction
plan due to the sloping hillside parcel, he said.
During the March 12 meeting, Rehman plans to return with finalized designs to seek planning board approval. Then the town board would decide whether to grant the final approval necessary to proceed. He hopes to break ground at the site by April.
Zimmer anticipates the project will get approved soon, noting a potential neighbor attended the meeting Tuesday and supported the proposal, aside from a few concerns about construction issues such as storm-water runoff.
“We just want to make adjustments to make sure it’s successful,” he said.
In addition to the growing Ahmadiyya population, other unrelated Muslim sects in the area have also been steadily working in recent years to improve services for their community.
Rashid Haq, a member of the Islamic Organization of the Southern Tier, has lived in Vestal with his wife and their children for six years.
The 37-year-old radiation oncologist assists with various educational programs and outreach at the group’s mosque in Johnson City, where he said a typical Friday prayer service attracts around 500 people.
Along with the Islamic Awareness Center in Binghamton and several other regional groups, the organization provides services for more than 5,000 Muslims living in the area, Haq said.
This group of people belongs to a sect that is much different than the Ahmadiyya, whose religion is rejected by many Muslim countries due to their different beliefs.
Haq noted, however, that the Ahmadiyya in the Tier appear to be attempting to address many of the same problems as his group.
“We’re not a very big community and we don’t have the greatest facilities, and those are the things that kind of hold us back,” he said, referring to the constant struggle to expand services offered at mosques and community centers.
Rehman compared the rift between his and other Muslim sects to the divide between Mormons and some Christian groups, whose followers reject Mormonism's founder, Joseph Smith.
Mizra Ghulam Ahmad, the founder of Ahmadiyya, is similarly rejected by other Muslim sects, he said, adding the divide is most prevalent in Pakistan.
Yet, while describing their respective local religious communities, both Haq and Rehman emphasized the importance of having a place to bring more people together.
“There is a role for these types of programs, where you do have a room for entertainment and social interaction and better run seminars and classes,” Haq said. “And it’s certainly something that can help fulfill the range of needs of a minority group and community.”
About the Ahmadiyya Muslim faith: Founded in 1889, it spans over 190 countries with membership exceeding tens of millions. Its current headquarters are in the United Kingdom. The organization has built more than 15,000 mosques, more than 500 schools, and more than 30 hospitals. The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA was established in 1921. [Source: Al Islam, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community website.]
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