Construction halted on mosque with too-tall minarets

Source: Associated Press

By MICHAEL MELIA

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — After exceeding a city height limit, builders of a mosque on New Haven’s outskirts are wrestling with how to cut 24 feet from its soaring, crescent-topped minarets.

In a clash between government and religion, the city has halted all construction on the building until the mosque figures out what to do about the 81-foot towers.

The steel and fiberglass minarets were sent in prefabricated sections from Turkey. A building permit was issued for a height of 57 feet, and by the time they were built last year and the discrepancy was discovered, the builders had moved on to other parts of the mosque, which is owned by the Turkish-American Religious Foundation.

The mosque, built to accommodate a growing Turkish Muslim community, sits across a busy road from an industrial park with a daycare center to one side and homes on another.

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