Excerpt:
Muslim doctors and patients at Freeman Hospital West in the past few weeks have a new option for their spiritual well-being.
Dr. Iftikhar Ali said Friday that the number of Muslim doctors in Joplin is increasing. He said though in the past year a new mosque has opened, it sometimes was still difficult to break away from the hospital for the required prayers five times daily. Ali is president of the Joplin mosque.
He said he asked Gary Duncan, the hospital president and chief executive officer, if he would consider establishing a Muslim prayer room. Not long after that, he said, a hospital worker asked him whether he had seen his room. Ali said he is grateful to Duncan for the addition.