By PETER APPLEBOME
Published: August 18, 2010

In the boiling caldron of American outrage, here’s one to throw in the pot.

In this faded industrial town on the Erie Canal, the old United Methodist church downtown is being turned into a mosque, the old roof topped with minarets, the crescent moon and star of Islam on new white stucco replacing the familiar red-brick facade. Like the immigrants and refugees making up an ever-increasing share of the local population and the 42 languages spoken in the local schools, it is one more sign of how much the familiar world here is fading into the past.

Somehow, though, people here have not been given the current script. Instead, while mosques and Islamic community centers have been contested from near ground zero and Staten Island to Murfreesboro, Tenn., Temecula, Calif., and Sheboygan, Wis., Utica is a place where the dog hasn’t barked.

By WKTV News
Story Created: Aug 19, 2010 at 7:47 AM EDT
Story Updated: Aug 19, 2010 at 8:08 AM EDT

UTICA, N.Y. (WKTV) - The community's response to the newly built mosque in downtown Utica is getting some high praise in an article in The New York Times.

In light of the mosque controversy in New York City, the article highlights how Utica embraced the mosque for the Bosnian Islamic Association of Utica. The group spent half a million dollars and countless hours to transform the old methodist church into the mosque.