Sept. 2008: A new mosque for Ramadan
On a hot day, members of the Islamic Center of Inland Empire in Rancho Cucamonga head for what they hoped would be their last Friday prayers at an old stucco house, which has served as their mosque since 2000, before their newly built mosque opens. The new mosque is visible at right rear. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
Zain Khugyani enjoys himself at the prayer service in the makeshift mosque. Construction workers were hurrying to finish the new mosque in time for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which starts today. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
Islamic Center members check out their new mosque, which is in its finishing stages of construction. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
Overflow worshipers sit outside under a tarp, to protect them from the sun, at their old prayer facility -- a stucco house -- for Friday prayers. The congregation has outgrown the old facility but will be able to worship at its new more spacious mosque during Ramadan. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
Worker Leo Rodriguez washes the entrance of the new mosque in preparation for the first prayers there, just in time for Ramadan. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
Construction workers polish the marble floors of the shiny new mosque in Rancho Cucamonga. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
Abdul Jelahej reads the Koran in a small room used as prayer hall at the house that Rancho Cucamonga Muslims have been using as a mosque. They’ve outgrown it and built a new mosque that can accommodate 1,100 people. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
I am looking at future generations. They will come here and get knowledge of Islam, said Tehseen Zafar, a Rancho Cucamonga resident who is a member of the Islamic Center of Inland Empire’s board of trustees. The center built the new mosque for $2 million. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
