MURFREESBORO (USA), July 21: The Muslim holy month of Ramazan is always a joyful time for believers, but a congregation in the southern state of Tennessee was feeling especially blessed this year as they worshipped on Friday.    

Opponents spent two years trying to halt construction of a new mosque for the Islamic Centre of Murfreesboro, but a federal judge ruled this week the congregation has a right to worship there as soon as the building is ready. “Ramadan this year reaches us at a very special time for us as a community,” Imam Ossama Bahloul told the congregation at Friday prayers. “We have received the good news about the federal court not standing on our side, but standing on the side of the Constitution.”

During Ramazan, Muslims abstain from food and drink during the daylight hours, breaking their fast at sundown and offering special prayers. Although it is a time of deprivation, Muslims consider Ramazan to be a joyful season.

Although there has been an Islamic centre in Murfreesboro for 30 years, the new building brought vehement opposition, including a lawsuit, a large rally and even vandalism, arson and a bomb threat.

Islamic centre leaders say the new building is needed because they have outgrown their current space in an office park. They say there are about 250 families who use the current 2,100-square-foot building, along with about 400 Muslim students from Middle Tennessee State University.

On Friday, male worshippers spilled out the door of the old site and into the parking lot until Bahloul asked them to squeeze together so that everyone could come inside. Muslims sit on the floor during the service and prostrate themselves during prayers.

Because of the prostration, women are not supposed to sit in front of men. In the current space, that means they must worship in a separate room, watching the proceedings on a video monitor.

In their new building, both men and women will be able to worship in the same room, Bahloul said.

On Friday, mosque members learned that Wednesday's federal court intervention came just in time. A local judge was ready to grant a request from mosque opponents to force Rutherford County to shut down construction. The judge said in an order issued late on Thursday that the issue was now on hold indefinitely.

Bahloul said he expects the congregation to be in the new space within days, but joked that there is just one problem. Through their difficulties, mosque members have received so much support from people in Murfreesboro and around the country that there is no way even the new building can fit everyone who has asked to be a part of its opening.

Opponents of the mosque, who used the issue to raise wider arguments against the faith of Islam, have not commented to media on the federal ruling.

Joe Brandon Jr., an attorney for mosque opponents, told Murfreesboro newspaper The Daily News Journal that he is exploring options for legal action.—AP