From Houston Chronicle
Standing behind the pulpit, addressing his modest 25-member congregation, Imam Khalis Rashaad preaches about time management, nutrition and economic empowerment at his new mosque in Houston’s Third Ward – a largely uncharted territory for Islamic centers.
The rhetoric there is different from the more abstract spiritual sermons of its counterparts – the dozens of long-established suburban mosques in Sugar Land, Katy, Spring and Clear Lake.
Leased in a strip mall on Almeda Road, the mosque is just getting by with member fees and donations that come in through the center’s Facebook page.
No geometric designs or chandeliers adorn the ceiling, no domes or minarets mark the outside. Besides three pieces of Quranic tapestry, the walls at the three-month-old Ibrahim Islamic Center are bare.
“It’s something to have a million-dollar mosque,” said the 39-year-old resident imam, “but if you have cheap projects and cheap ideas coming out of it, it just defeats the purpose.”
