Baltimore synagogue offers to share parking lot with mosque

A synagogue in a Baltimore suburb with a large Orthodox Jewish population has offered to share its parking lot with a mosque.

The Baltimore Hebrew Congregation in Pikesville, Md., has offered the use of its parking facilities to a fledgling congregation of Ahmaddiya Muslims that recently purchased a former mansion and assisted-living facility across from the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation, the Baltimore Jewish Times reported. The congregation is part of an international Muslim movement founded in 1889 in India that preaches universal peace.

The congregation of Ahmaddiya Muslims is made up of 40 families. Its leader, Dr. Agha Khan, a neurosurgeon at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore, met recently with Rabbi Andrew Busch of the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation and other congregational officials in an effort to build good relations. Khan also met with Baltimore Jewish Council officials and leaders of the Pikesville-Greenspring Communication Coalition Community, according to the newspaper.

“Right from the beginning, because of his involvement with Sinai, he knew he needed to have some discussions with leadership in the Jewish community,” Dr. Arthur Abramson, executive director of the Baltimore Jewish Council, told the Baltimore Jewish Times.

The Ahmaddiya congregation plans to put in its own parking lot in the future.