The noble Shaykh was asked the following question during a June 2004 tele-link with brothers in Toronto, Canada:

[Q]: Here in the West, we live in cities where there are no Salafī masājid. Al-hamdulilah, the Salafī brothers are gathered there to use a facility as a masjid, some of them have lease terms for many years. In the masjid, the ṣaláwāt (prayers) are established five times a day, ṣalātul-jumuʿah and a designated Imām (is present). Unfortunately, some of our brothers say that this facility is not considered a masjid because the building is not owned by the Muslims, and as such, they do not make taḥiyyat al-Masjid (the two-unit prayer of greeting the masjid) and they pray the jumuʿah prayers with others who are not Salafīs (since they don’t consider this building to be a masjid).