Tennessee construction employment rose 5.5%, with 5,800 jobs, in August over a year ago, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported.

The first work will be fencing and gating the site, and adding lighting and security cameras, says Akbar Arab, S&A Constructors owner.

The steel frame and brick veneer building will include a 4,500-sq-ft multi-purpose hall that can be used for worship and other meetings. The building also will house offices, a library, a nursery and a kitchen, Sbenaty said. The parking lot has spaces for about 200 vehicles.

At completion, the complex will include a mosque, weekend school, gym, indoor pool, sports fields, basketball and tennis courts, two pavilions and a playground.

Two Rutherford County deputies and a supervisor were on hand at the groundbreaking, which drew about 150 members and supporters.

“We decided to send them down there” after the earlier incidents, said spokeswoman Lisa Marchesoni.

Three protestors -- one with a large flag mounted on his pickup truck -- stood and watched from the parking lot of a church next door but left soon after the ceremony.