Art News

Ohio mosque designed to blend in, not stand out

HILLIARD, OHIO (AP).- The commanding white structure sits on the edge of cornfields in the suburbs, striking in design yet puzzling in its purpose. One of the largest new Islamic worship centers in the country doesn’t look like a mosque, at least at first glance. And that’s what its developer was aiming for, especially in a post-9/11 world. “We went to the architect and explained that we didn’t want a building that stood out as a mosque,” said Khaled Farag, who also is one of the mosque’s founders. “We wanted something that fit into a residential neighborhood. We wanted an American mosque,” Farag said. The result is a cultural contradiction: a building that is not immediately recognizable as an Islamic house of worship, but is one, as well as a facility that functions as a seven-day-a week interactive museum about all things Islam. “It’s not your traditional-looking mosque, because it’s not just a mosque,” said Abdul