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Is the Roxbury location significant? Definitely. The ISB is on Malcolm X Boulevard. Malcolm X was the first major Muslim leader in America. He's an inspirational symbol of growth and transformation of our community. We hope the new mosque and cultural center will also play a role in the transformation of the community around it.

The mosque didn't get a warm welcome from some people. Actually, the mosque got a warm welcome in the neighborhood. Outside citizens groups orchestrated a broad campaign to try to attack and end the mosque and cultural center project. Soon after groundbreaking in 2004, James Policastro filed a lawsuit against the mosque claiming the land deal that the cultural center got from the city was a violation of church and state even though there had been years of community proceedings and hearings in which he did not take part. Soon after, a number of news articles emerged claiming the cultural center was radical and extremist. It's fear mongering and downright dangerous. Yousef Abou-Allaban, who was then director of the Islamic Society of Boston, got threats. The cultural center decided to file a lawsuit in return.

But the lawsuit was eventually dropped. In the end the ISB decided to drop its libel lawsuits in exchange for the other side agreeing not to appeal the Policastro lawsuit. We thought more harm would be done, and more tension created in the community, if the legal process continued. It's better to have the cultural center open and generating good will than trying to win lawsuits.

If I stood in the lobby before prayer time, what languages would I hear? You would hear Somali, Urdu, Bengali, Arabic, Bosnian, Turkish, Eritrean, English, certainly. You name it -- Yoruba, Hausa -- you'd hear all the different languages of the world almost.

How was the mosque's design chosen? It blends Bostonian and Muslim architecture, so there's the very traditional New England red brick exterior and traditional Islamic elements like the dome and minaret. The front entrance is the bab-as-salama, the gate of peace. The mosque is designed like a person in supplication, with two hands raised with palms facing up. The left side is the prayer area and spiritual space; the right side is cultural and interfaith. These two sides balance each other, the same way in prayer you ask your Creator for balance.

In one word, what message does this mosque send to the community? Welcome. Because the way our hands are open in supplication we mean for them to be open in welcome. And peace, because that's the way we greet everyone. We want to extend that greeting and hopefully that experience to everyone.