Utica's newest mosque gets facelift

Bosnian volunteers cover former church's red brick with gray stucco.

By ALEXANDRA SELTZER

Observer-Dispatch

UTICA - The volunteer construction workers rapidly remaking the exterior of a former church into a European-style mosque stopped working two times during their shift Friday along Court Street.

Once, they gathered inside the hulking structure to eat lunch - Bosnian soup, salad, cheese pie, meat and dessert. A second time, they gathered at 1 p.m. with several dozen members of Utica's Bosnian community for prayer in a recently renovated worship room.

Passers-by this week can see that the prayer room isn't the only part of the building being redone. The brick that protected the old Trinity United Methodist Church has been almost completely covered in recent days by white foamboard and gray stucco.

Stucco is a material popular on buildings in European countries, including mosques.

This week's renovations are the latest sign of the emergence of Utica's massive Muslim community, most of them former refugees from Bosnia and their families. At least 1-in-10 Uticans practice Islam, and the percentage could well be higher.

"There are (many) Muslims in Utica," said Dzevsad Dizdarevic, board member of the Bosnian Islamic Association of Utica. "They have always prayed but didn't have a place to pray together."

The Bosnian Muslims broke away in recent years from the long-existing mosque on Kemble Street, purchasing the Court Street church in June 2008. Back then, water was 2 feet deep in places because of the poor condition of the roof.

"Brick repair would have been millions of dollars," Dizdarevic said. So they took the old roof down.

Much has occurred since then.

Upstairs, one room has been renovated and turned into a classroom with desks and a whiteboard. The association plans to redo the other rooms in hopes of having a school there soon.

The cafeteria has been redone along with the bathrooms. The prayer room is decorated with golden red carpet and fresh paint.

On the outside, the church's steeple has been converted into a minaret, where traditionally the call to prayer is made in other countries, although not here. Instead of with a cross, the minaret is topped with three balls, symbolizing a new mosque.

The association plans to have another minaret built soon in the front of the building.

But, the rest of the building is still under renovation. Some of the walls are filled with holes, the wood floors are difficult to walk on and the ceiling is barely there.

"I don't think anybody else would take the building except us," Dizdarevic said.

The estimated total cost of the renovation is about $160,000, Dizdarevic said. The money spent so far has been donated from some of the 450 Bosnian families at the mosque and from other places.

More money is needed, officials said.

"We don't know when we will be finished. We have a lot of needs," Dizdarevic said, "It's going over our expectations."

Edin Music is one of the community members who came to pray Friday. He is excited about the construction.

"People want to see restoration in the city," Music, 23, said. "Especially in Utica."

Music said he has not heard of many negative comments or reactions to the mosque but could understand what people might say.

"Maybe some people thought this was a historic site, and we are remodeling it. So we are altering a historic church," Music said. "But most people like that it's not an eyesore in the middle of the city."

The church building had sat empty before the Muslims purchased it.

Ahmedin Mehmedovic, the 23-year-old Imam of the mosque, moved to Utica from Bosnia in 2006.

Mehmedovic said the first Bosnian refugee came to Utica in 1993, and now there are between 5,000 and 6,000 here.

"98 percent of Bosnians here are Muslim, and they came here to start a new life," Mehmedovic said.