New refugee center to open in St. Louis

ST. LOUIS -- A center to welcome refugees from Syria and elsewhere was set to open in St. Louis.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported the refugee center was scheduled to open Thursday.

Muslim police chaplains Adil Imdad and Dzemal Bijedic said they began to look for a warehouse to open a no-pay thrift shop to provide goods and services to an expected influx of Syrian refugees to the area.

"Immediately, when we heard the Syrians were coming, Dzemal and I said: 'We need to be more organized,"' Imdad said.

Bijedic and Imdad immigrated to the U.S. from Bosnia and Pakistan, respectively, and said they want to help people who flee their countries begin rebuilding their lives.

"As a police chaplain, I see a lot of things. I see how people struggle. You are not supposed to judge people by their cover," Bijedic said.

The International Institute of St. Louis said the agency has agreed to sponsor 500 Syrians in addition to the 650 or so other refugees it helps resettle annually.

"Anybody can walk in. Hindus, Jews, Christians, Mormons," Imdad said.

The new warehouse and center, which will be run by volunteers, has received many items, including several hundred boxes of donations from a mosque in Little Rock, Arkansas, earlier this week.

Imdad and Bijedic work with the Islamic Foundation of Greater St. Louis, which oversees two of the region's mosques.

The not-for-profit organization is renting the building, and it is being filled up with donations from Muslims, many of whom Bijedic said are refugees.

The foundation provides outreach services.

Imdad said they would start asking for donations again once the welcome center was officially open and people talked with organizers about their needs.