Source: The Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2004/06/24/getting_to_know_the_neighbors/
On June 24, 2004 The Boston Globe reported, "Mahmud Jafri, a founder of the only Shi'ite Muslim center in New England, was mingling with Jewish leaders and fellow Muslims under a canopy of trees at his Dover home... In this charged political climate... the get-together also spoke to the evolving role that he and other members of the center are playing in the region. With the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the war in Iraq, they are no longer just Shi'ite Muslims loyal to their faith; they're ambassadors for Islam.
Evidence of this shift can be found in the ambitious expansion plans at the Islamic Ma'sumeen Center in Hopkinton. The preliminary proposal, which Jafri introduced to town officials last month, calls primarily for more worship space to accommodate the current membership, some 100 families from across New England."