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2007.12.05
Ismaili Muslim Center Work Starts in Glenview
After overcoming a push to keep them out, Chicago's Ismaili Muslim community took the first formal step Friday toward moving into north suburban Glenview with a festive ceremony to celebrate the groundbreaking of a 26,000-square-foot community center to be built on 9.5 acres of manicured greenery at Shermer and Golf Roads.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Glenview President Kerry Cummings laid mortar and pressed bricks into a facade at the conclusion of the ceremony, in a gesture of support for the center. Work began Nov. 1 and is scheduled to continue for 12 to 14 months.
"We can recall spirited discussions," said Mahmood Eboo, president of the Ismaili Council for the United States of America, referring to controversy over the center. "We are grateful to the village staff for long and deliberate discussions on this issue."
The center, called the Ismaili Jamatkhana, will include a prayer hall that faces east, toward Mecca, as well as offices, classrooms and halls for social gatherings. It will become the epicenter of the 5,000-strong Ismaili Muslim community, which now meets at two smaller centers in the Chicago area, community members said. Glenview was selected as the site for the center because many Ismailis have settled in the north suburbs since arriving from Pakistan, India and east Africa.
The Glenview Village Board unanimously approved the center in 2006, but that vote came after much wrangling from neighbors who gathered about 1,000 signatures on a petition asking the board to deny permits to the group on grounds that the center would cause too much traffic.
At the time, some residents said the real concern stemmed from fear of Islam. On Friday, some Ismailis suggested residents simply needed time to learn about their Islam, whose members emphasize charity and civic duty.
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