CHAPEL HILL- The first mosque in Chapel Hill is nearing completion. Town leaders hope this will help improve community relations.
"We've been working for awhile now to try to make sure that people who are apart of the Muslim community know that they're welcomed," says Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt.
The mosque is located in the 100 block of Stateside Drive off of Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard.
"It's always important that any area gets a mosque because there's Muslims in the Durham area, Chapel Hill area, Research Triangle area," says Abu-Abdellah Muhammad, who runs a Durham clothing store and practices the Muslim faith.
In February 2015, three young Muslim students were gunned down at a Chapel Hill condominium. Police say it wasn't a hate crime, but a parking dispute that led their neighbor, Craig Stephen Hicks, to pull the trigger. In a recent interview with WUNC radio, Chief Chris Blue said he should've used more sensitivity when talking about the murders.
"I'm really sorry that what was intended to be informational in some ways distracted people from their need to grieve and work through a tragedy," he said.
But town leaders hope the mosque will also be an emblem of healing, as the town still reels from an international tragedy.
"It's another good sign that Chapel Hill is a place for everyone," says Kleinschmidt.
The mosque could open as early as November.