(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - "I don't think identity should be based on symbols only," Haris Tarin, director of the Washington DC office of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, told the BBC on Thursday, February 2.
"Identity has to be based on the fact that you are part of a community, part of something bigger than you."
In the post 9/11 era, building mosques has become a difficult mission in the United States.
Several projects to build Muslim worship places have been met with local opposition.
In Manhattan, a project to build an Islamic center near Ground Zero has turned into a national debate.
This opposition has prompted American Muslims to seek new ways to design their mosques.
Building domes and minarets has been an integral part of architecture of mosques around the world.
For instance, the National Islamic Center in Washington, which was built in the 1950s, has a towering minaret.
But such a building with domes and minarets is not now possible in the post 9/11 America.
"It's a bad time for Islamic architecture," said kbar Ahmed, a professor of Islamic Studies at American University in Washington DC.
"If there was some visionary with money who wanted to build the Taj Mahal in the US, he'd be attacked as a stealth Jihadist."
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