After almost two decades of worshipping in a backyard sheep barn, members of a Muslim congregation in southern Santa Clara County can finally proceed with its controversial plan to<\/p>\n
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After almost two decades of worshipping in a backyard sheep barn, members of a Muslim congregation in southern Santa Clara County can finally proceed with its controversial plan to build a mosque and Islamic cemetery here.<\/p>\n
The Board of Supervisors unanimously approved permits for the South Valley Islamic Community\u2019s project Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur nearest Muslim cemetery is nearly two hours away, and that is a great hardship for our families,\u201d Karen Musa, president of the Islamic Center, which has been planning the project for more than a decade, told supervisors. \u201cYou cannot expect people to live here and not die here.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Islamic Community\u2019s members have been praying and gathering in a \u201cbarn mosque\u201d since 2001. That\u2019s when the barn\u2019s owner kicked out his sheep and let the group use the space rent-free.<\/p>\n
In 2006, families in the congregation scraped together funds to buy a vacant 15.8-acre parcel at 14045 Monterey Road, where they hoped to bury loved ones and serve future generations of worshippers.<\/p>\n
The center would have daily prayer services throughout the day, which would draw between 100 to 150 people, as well as events with up to 300 attendees on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. The center is permitted to have four special events a year with as many as 500 people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After almost two decades of worshipping in a backyard sheep barn, members of a Muslim congregation in southern Santa Clara County can finally proceed with its controversial plan to \u00a0 After almost two decades of worshipping in a backyard sheep barn, members of a Muslim congregation in southern Santa Clara County can finally proceed with …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":20207,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_108372464460192_245495985553329":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n