The world's third most northerly mosque has found its home in Inuvik at the end of its three-week journey from Winnipeg. The unassuming prefab structure arrived by barge from Hay River just before 5 p.m. on Sept. 22.
Facing an early snow, a crowd of about 40 Muslims greeted their long-awaited mosque at the Inuvik shipyard. There were prayers, group photos, hugs and applause.
"It was joyful," Abdalla Mohamed, who owns a business in the town in the Mackenzie Delta, said. "Some people were crying. But it was a feeling of achievement. We have something we were looking for all our lives."
A charity is planning to build a mosque in Inuvik so that Muslim children living in this remote region no longer have to travel long distances to get an Islamic education or attend the mosque.