Aren't Fridays and holidays the times most Muslims go to a mosque? Islam Online is concerned that they don't go more often.
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It's prayer time, but the silence is deafening inside the massive prayer hall of the Islamic Cultural Center in the Italian capital, also known as Rome Grand Mosque.
"There is another small prayer room underground, there might be some worshippers there," Ahmed Adam Ya`qoub, the mosque's keeper, told IslamOnline.net.
Inside the 100m2 room, there are only three or four people praying at one corner, and one reciting Qur'an in another.
"They are of the mosque's workers. And the man reciting the Qur'an usually comes to the mosque every now and then," said Ya`qoub.
Yet, inside the mosque, which was inaugurated in 1995 to serve the growing number of Muslims in Rome, there are no signs of life.
The mosque is the biggest in Italy, with a complex that is considered one of the major monuments built in the city in the past few decades.
It was built on a site covering 30, 000 m2 in a residential area at the heart of Rome, and its construction was funded by donations from 23 Arab and Muslim countries.
The mosque's huge prayer hall accommodates some 5,000 worshippers, and the massive empty spaces that surround the building can take up to 5,000 more.
However, despite the massive building, prestigious location and unique design, the mosque remains abandoned by worshippers through out the year, except for Friday prayers and `Eid celebrations.
Italy has a Muslim population of some 1.2 million, including 20,000 reverts, according to unofficial estimates.
(more)
Source: Islam Online (English)
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It's prayer time, but the silence is deafening inside the massive prayer hall of the Islamic Cultural Center in the Italian capital, also known as Rome Grand Mosque.
"There is another small prayer room underground, there might be some worshippers there," Ahmed Adam Ya`qoub, the mosque's keeper, told IslamOnline.net.
Inside the 100m2 room, there are only three or four people praying at one corner, and one reciting Qur'an in another.
"They are of the mosque's workers. And the man reciting the Qur'an usually comes to the mosque every now and then," said Ya`qoub.
Yet, inside the mosque, which was inaugurated in 1995 to serve the growing number of Muslims in Rome, there are no signs of life.
The mosque is the biggest in Italy, with a complex that is considered one of the major monuments built in the city in the past few decades.
It was built on a site covering 30, 000 m2 in a residential area at the heart of Rome, and its construction was funded by donations from 23 Arab and Muslim countries.
The mosque's huge prayer hall accommodates some 5,000 worshippers, and the massive empty spaces that surround the building can take up to 5,000 more.
However, despite the massive building, prestigious location and unique design, the mosque remains abandoned by worshippers through out the year, except for Friday prayers and `Eid celebrations.
Italy has a Muslim population of some 1.2 million, including 20,000 reverts, according to unofficial estimates.
(more)
Source: Islam Online (English)
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