Anjuman-e-Jamali Muslim Group to build new mosque

Local Muslim community anticipates the arrival of mosque on San Antonio Road

posted March 15, 2009

by Naazneen Essabhoy of Campanile

courtesy of Barton Architecture

Above is a probable sketch for the Mosque on San Antonio Road in Palo Alto. The Anjuman-e-Jamali mosque's construction hopes begin at the end of this year and finish sometime in early winter of 2011.

After more than 10 years of searching for a location, the Anjuman-e-Jamali Muslim group will now build Palo Alto's first mosque, allowing Muslims from all over the South Bay to congregate and pray.

The group of South Bay Bohra Muslims, a sect of Shiites, has been using an old church on San Antonio Road for the last five years, and the church will be replaced by the mosque. The Bohras hope that construction will begin at the end of this year and will be completed around the beginning of 2011.

An avid member of the group, who will be fully financing the entire mosque, wishes to remain anonymous and will be referred to as Yasmin for the purposes of this article. Yasmin, who has lived in the Bay Area for the past 41 years, comes from a religious background in India and continues to read from the Quran and pray fives times a day.

"I wanted to build the mosque to help my community," Yasmin said. "I come from a small town in, India — Surat — and I've always grown up in this community that I have benefited from. It has given me the culture, and it has given me the values that I want my children to have."

Yasmin feels as though building the mosque would be her way of giving other children the opportunity to congregate and learn the ways and means of how one should pray and approach God.

The mosque is currently going through the process of requesting approval from the city and the Architectural Review Board. Approval can take anywhere from six months to a year. The application for the construction of the mosque was sent to the board in January.

The City of Palo Alto and ARB have indicated, through a recent hearing, that they are favorable towards the design and to the features that have been incorporated in the mosque; however, technical aspects such as the traffic and noise level are still being looked over, Yasmin said.

"We have, up until now, had no objections whatsoever," Yasmin said. "When we had the Palo Alto hearing at City Hall, all the people who came to visit and listen were very complimentary and were really happy that this will be the first mosque ever built in Palo Alto."

There are also no objections from Palo Alto's other location of Muslim congregation, the Jamil Masjid on California Avenue. The Masjid, unlike the mosque being built, is run by a Sunni family, the Jamils. Palo Alto High School junior Shameem Jamil believes that the mosque is a great addition to Palo Alto and does not believe the mosque will affect her family's Masjid.

"[The Jamil Masjid] is different," Jamil said. "It is not a set-up organization that thrives on attendance."

The Masjid, a hall above what used to be a rug shop, is filled with 15 to 30 people on its busiest days, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The Masjid is a walk-in location where Muslims can come and perform their daily prayers.

Although the city approval process is going smoothly, the mosque planners are slightly frustrated with the authority under the current Dai Syedna Taher Saifuddin, the head pope of the Dawoodi Bohras.

Interior and exterior colors and materials have been continuously sent to India and have been returned with rejections. Because Yasmin and her team, which includes architects John Barton and Tony Carrasco, felt as though the process was not progressing fast enough, they prepared a comprehensive design that she personally took to Mumbai.

There, she explained her thought process that led her to the origins of her designs, she quickly received full acceptance.

As an art historian and a frequent traveler, Yasmin has studied and seen mosques from various countries and centuries of time. Her travels and interest in art history helped her discover the current style of the new mosque. One style that Yasmin is fond of is from the Fatemid period, which was a powerful dynasty in the late 12th and 13th centuries. Yasmin has taken several different elements from mosques of that time that will be incorporated into the new mosque.

"Mosques have evolved and changed a lot in their style and features, but there are certain characteristics that will always be present in mosques," Yasmin said.

There are seven mandatory attributes to all mosques. The first is the qibla, the geographical orientation; the mosque must face towards Mecca.

There is also mehrab, the niche where the Imam, or priest, leads the prayer and crenellation, which is the decoration on the top of the mosque. Arched windows, a community hall and a central structure are three other characteristics. The seventh feature is a minaret, which is normally used for the call to prayer. However, this element will not be in use at the mosque in Palo Alto due to noise issues. Yasmin chose designs from mosques in different locations of the world to build a mosque that will be contemporary, but still will maintain its old and very rich traditions.

The Mosque's minaret design, which will not be used for the call to prayer, is from the 11th century Al Jayushi Mosque in Cairo, and the front entry is from the 12th century Al Aqmar Mosque in Cairo, Egypt.

In addition, the stucco of the Al Anwar mosque has been transformed to a modern design made by water jet-cut material designs.

And finally, the designs for accrenilation and the mehrab were inspired by a mosque in London, while the two-story orientation of the mosque is a characteristic of mosques in India.

This new layout indicates the format of separation of men and women, a general policy followed in all mosques in most places.

However, instead of a curtain separating men in front and women in back, the current situation in the temporary church, women will sit above on the second floor, while men will sit on the ground floor.

The Mosque is 12,600 square feet, which supports a little less than the current Anjuman-e-Jamali population.

There will be space problems in the coming years with the growing population, but hopefully another mosque can be built in a different location in the future, Yasmin said.

Above all, Yasmin welcomes anyone who wishes to come and to understand the Muslim community better, and she hopes to communicate and form good relations with the neighboring Jewish Community Center by exchanging ideas and by visiting each other.

"At the end of Ramadan, when we celebrate Eid, we do invite the people of the community to visit us and see what we are all about, and that same openness we want to continue," Yasmin said.

Yasmin also hopes that the new Mosque will bring more awareness to the religion of Islam and expunge any negative beliefs that have arisen from some actions of some Muslims during the last 10 years.

"There is such a wrong perception of Islam out there," Yasmin said. "People think of violence and bombing, and we want to say 'no, that is not what Islam is all about.'"