In This Town, Open Arms for a Mosque

August 18, 2010

Author: Peter Applebome

Source: The New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/19/nyregion/19towns.html?_r=1&ref=religion_and_belief

In the boiling caldron of American outrage, here’s one to throw in the pot.

In this faded industrial town on the Erie Canal, the old United Methodist church downtown is being turned into a mosque, the old roof topped with minarets, the crescent moon and star of Islam on new white stucco replacing the familiar red-brick facade. Like the immigrants and refugees making up an ever-increasing share of the local population and the 42 languages spoken in the local schools, it is one more sign of how much the familiar world here is fading into the past.