Two years after Muslims in Joplin suffered the traumatic loss of their place of worship at the hands of an arsonist, a new $2 million mosque is now open.
Families gathered yesterday for the first time at the new mosque to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy month. Navid Zaidi, a pulmonologist originally from Pakistan, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the mosque means a lot to the small Muslim community in the southwest Missouri town.
A man awaiting trial for two arson fires at a Planned Parenthood clinic is also suspected of burning down the mosque in 2012, just a year after the tornado that devastated Joplin. The man has not been charged in connection with the mosque fire.