Tower calls Muslims to prayer

A modified minaret is nearly complete at the Albanian Islamic Cultural Center of Clearwater.

By MAUREEN BYRNE

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 15, 2000

CLEARWATER -- Construction workers Richard Davis and John Madison have tackled a lot of building projects in their careers. But the job their boss gave them at 225 Cleveland St. was a first.

Their assignment: Build a minaret.

"He told me he had a special job for me to do," Davis recalled Wednesday after wrapping up a day's work in the hot sun.

Though neither Davis nor Madison had ever built a minaret -- a high, slender tower attached to a Muslim mosque -- they said they followed a blueprint like any other job. "But it was a challenge," Davis said.

Inside the tower is a galvanized cylinder, encased by a 91/2-inch thick concrete wall. Pouring the concrete was the biggest hurdle because it had to be done in four stages, Davis said.

"There was never a dull moment, that's for sure," Madison added.

The Albanian Islamic Cultural Center of Clearwater hired Caladesi Construction to build the minaret. Davis, a superintendent, and Madison, a carpenter, started the $47,500 project in January. They said it should be finished by today.

"I just can't wait to see the scaffolding out of there," said Metat Idrizi, a board member and treasurer of the Albanian Islamic Cultural Center, which has 85 registered members.

Idrizi watched Davis and Madison Thursday morning as they put panels on a landing attached to the 56-foot-high tower.

"Now when people look at this they're going to say, "Oh, this is an Islamic center,' " Idrizi said.

Since the tower started taking shape, attendance at the Friday afternoon prayer service has nearly doubled, said Ronnie Xheka, a board member at the center. "They know what that symbol is," he said.

Traditionally, an imam, or spiritual leader, would climb a spiral staircase enclosed in a tower. He would step onto a landing and call people to worship. In modern Europe and the Middle East, a taped recording and speakers have replaced the human voice.

The minaret at the Albanian Islamic Cultural Center is only decorative, Idrizi said. There is no staircase inside and the windows on the tower are fake.

Yet its completion means the Islamic center is a step closer to looking more like a real mosque. In 1998, the center moved from a small house on Skinner Boulevard in Dunedin to the 7,000-square-foot building on Fort Harrison Avenue. Center members donated time and money to transform the former dance studio into a spiritual home for the Albanian Islamic community.

The prayer room was the first project completed. Now that the minaret is done, members will focus on enlarging a social hall, building a kitchen and restrooms, paving the parking lot and painting the exterior of the building white with green trim. Eventually, workers will build a decorative wall around the property, which sits next to a fast-food restaurant, and erect a dome atop the building.

While the tower was under construction, passers-by and motorists would often stop and ask Davis and Madison what they were building. A radio tower, some speculated. Now they'll know, they said.

The minaret was made possible through a donation by brothers Amza and Neim Abdullaj, both members of the center.

"We feel great about this," Xheka said.

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.