(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) – Located on 420 E. Lindsey St., the two-story Masjid An-Nur will include male and female fellowship rooms, warming-up kitchens, a library and a bathroom to wash up before prayer, according to the Islamic Society of Norman website.
Project manager Siddiq Karim said the nearly 7,000 square-foot mosque also adds 31 parking spaces to accommodate attendees who had to park on George Street.
Expansion fundraising began in 2007 for the nearly $800,000 construction.
Nearly half of the people who attend Masjid An-Nur are OU students, Karim said.
“The mosque is a place that brings different nations and cultures together,” OU alumnus Suhayb Anwar said. “It will be a community center for all religions and faiths for dialogue.”
In the meantime, mosque attendees meet at a leased space in the Lindsey Street and 24th Avenue shopping center, Karim said.
Two houses built in the 1950s made up the pre-existing mosque, according to the society website. The old houses became inadequate for the needs of the Muslim community in Norman, however, Karim said.
The Islamic Society of Norman has grown from 25 attendees to more than 150 since it began in 1976, Karim said.
The mosque will be completed in January or February 2012.
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