The Kamloops Islamic Association is set to make a presentation to Kamloops Council tomorrow to try to convince city council to allow the organization to purchase a plot of land for a new Mosque.
Association Director Umme Mansoory says they’ve identified a plot of land near TRU along McGill which would work for them.
“We’re hoping that we can showcase to the new city council just how much benefit our Association and our organization can provide to the Kamloops community, and why that location is ideal for us,” said Mansoory, noting a lot of international students who attend Thompson Rivers University are Muslim. “One of our parameters is that it should be within 5-kilometers of TRU. So we’re really looking at that center core of Kamloops on the south side.”
The Islamic Association’s current Mosque is located outside Kamloops city limits in Knutsford, and was founded there in 2007.
As such, it’s not serviced with municipal water and sewage, nor does public transit reach the area.
Mansoory argues this has prompted a number of professionals — including 16 Muslim physicians — to leave Kamloops over the past 10-years.
“One of the things that we hear from those families, those Muslim doctors who move away, is that ‘we’re moving to a bigger city because we have better access to Mosques and educational services for our children.'”
The Kamloops Islamic Association notes that in Prince George, the local Muslim association purchased city-owned land and constructed a multi-million-dollar Mosque.
“We are hoping to work with the City of Kamloops to do the same here,” notes the Association. “TRU will continue to recruit from international countries that bring in Muslim students. This will increase demand from students looking to access our services.”