Excerpt:
A Central Avenue storefront mosque is planning an expansion that will double its size.
Masjid As-Salam has purchased the former grocery store next to its building at Central and North Lake avenues in an effort to keep up with its growing congregation and provide female congregants, who traditionally worship separately, a more pleasant place to pray.
"Our population has increased over the years, and we have been feeling constraints of the space we have now," said Shamshad Ahmad, president of Masjid As-Salam and a physics professor at the University at Albany.