Excerpt:
Construction of the metro area's newest mosque involved a shopping trip to the Middle East, some back-and-forth with the city of Minneapolis and a reported $3 million investment.
But developer Basim Sabri says setting out to build one of Minnesota's largest mosques at his Karmel Square mall wasn't a vanity project. Instead, the space — part of a major expansion at Karmel — was meant as a goodwill gesture to the local Somalis who rent and shop at the south Minneapolis mall.
The expansion has tested Sabri's famously tense relationships with the city and the mall's neighbors, who have voiced concerns over parking and traffic issues. Part of the construction collapsed in May, cutting off electricity to the neighborhood and briefly stalling the project.