Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett was the first elected official to arrive at the Islamic Center of Maryland on June 10, 2016, the first Friday of Ramadan.
ICM was finally breaking ground on its first building in a three-building, three-phase expansion project that goes back to 1990. It was also the day the nation witnessed the burial of boxing legend Muhammad Ali. The coincidence was not lost on Leggett.
Wael Elkhoshairi, the Chairman of ICM’s Board of Trustees and the master of ceremonies for the day’s groundbreaking, invited Leggett to address the approximately 300 community members gathered under a large tent in front of the construction site, eager to witness the milestone decades in the making.
Leggett said the day was unique day because “a person who was initially rejected [by America] for what he had to say and for his belief” was honored today as “people came together today not only to celebrate him as a great fighter, but also as a great American and a person who believed in his faith and demonstrated it throughout the world.” In the same way, said Leggett, the ICM expansion is an expression of strong faith. “What you are doing here today, what you are building is a symbol against all the hatred today, and we are confident it will stand for generations to come.”
ICM raised $4 million to reach the Friday groundbreaking, the start of the first phase of a three-phase master plan, each phase representing the construction of a multi-purpose community center building, a masjid facility, and a full-time school building, respectively.
The ceremony offered a platform for some of the founding members of the ICM community to remind younger members about how Allah made the groundbreaking day possible.
Founding member Dr. Amin Ezzeddine said in the mid-1980s only about twenty Muslim families lived in the Gaithersburg area of Montgomery County, Maryland. The families would meet at homes and then community centers, and they established juma’ prayer at the Bechtel Building on Shady Grove Road. In 1990, the group rented out Casey Community Center for juma’ prayers. Around that time, recalled Ezzeddine, they were meeting at the home of Ahmed El-Haggan when he asked the group why they didn’t try to start an Islamic center. “Every one of us was thinking about that but no one had the courage to really spell it out because it has a lot of implications as far as volunteering and time and money,” said Ezzeddine.
Soon after that meeting, ICM came into existence as an incorporated organization in 1990. The first fundraiser held that same year netted about $20,000 and “got the ball rolling,” said Ezzeddine.
Abdullah Shamim, another founding member, described the purchase of ICM’s property on Woodfield Road.
The property served as a plant nursery when it went up for auction, and the young ICM organization decided to bid on it, said Shamim. ICM lost the auction to a developer, but the following day the developer called Shamim and said he had a change of mind and that a community use would be a better fit for the property. However, Shamim declined the developer’s offer to sell because the price was too high. Instead, ICM waited until a new owner took over the facility, and then negotiated with the new owner to purchase the property for $750,000 payable over one year. “When I came back a lot of [community members] criticized me saying ‘why did you do that, we don’t have the money’ but alhumdulillah here is the reality,” said Shamim to loud applause.
Nadeem Ahmad, a member of ICM’s Board of Trustees and the head of the Engineering and Construction committee explained the significance of the day’s ground breaking as “a significant milestone” and reminded the community that although it seems like it has taken a long time to reach a ground breaking, the work and progress on the master plan “never stopped.”
The original master plan conceived in 1999 called for one large building housing all of ICM’s services. A new analysis done in 2007 convinced ICM leaders that a multi-phase master plan consisting of three separate structures – a multi-purpose building, a masjid, and a fulltime school building – is a better expansion strategy, explained Ahmad. Friday’s ground breaking was the official start of construction on the 48,000 square-foot multi-purpose building. Targeted for completion in 2018, ICM is calling the $8 million building the “Islamic school, youth and community center building” said Ahmad. ICM will continue using the existing temporary buildings while the multi-purpose building is being built. Once completed, all ICM services and functions will move inside the multi-purpose building and the temporary structures will be torn down in preparation for the next two phases of the master plan. The masjid – to be built during the second phase – is planned for completion in 2020. No tentative date has been set for the fulltime school building. Fundraising will continue throughout the construction process; ICM has around $1.6 million on hand for the phase 1 construction, leaving a significant amount yet to be raised.
After his presentation, Ahmad asked the approximately one dozen volunteer engineering and construction committee members, architect, and contractors to assemble on stage so the community will know who is tasked with building out ICM’s future. Hubert Construction based in Gaithersburg, Maryland will lead the actual construction.
Also speaking at the ceremony were county council members Sidney Katz and George Leventhal, Reverend Mannsfield Kaseman, and Montgomery County Police District Commander Nancy Hudson.
The ceremony ended with photos of guests and community members digging in the dirt with golden shovels. A catered iftar and dinner followed. A major fundraising dinner is scheduled for Sunday, June 19, 2016 at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel & Conference Center.
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