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A New Landmark for 21st Century Britain
By Don Melvin
London
Visitors to the 2012 Olympic Games in London may see rising before them, in addition to ancient churches like St. Paul’s Cathedral and West-minster Abbey, a new landmark reflecting 21st Century Britain — a massive mosque capable of accommodating 40,000 worshippers. If all goes according to plan, the Abbey Mills Islamic Center, a huge complex with an unusual, sweeping design, would open in time for the Games, 500 yards from the Olympic village in East London.
The mosque would be Western Europe’s largest and a fitting reflection, some Islamic leaders say, of the religious diversity of modern Britain. “Islam is actually the most practised religion in Britain,” said Massoud Shadjareh, chairman of the London-based Islamic Human Rights Commission. Construction of the mosque is being proposed by Tablighi Jamaat. The mosque and surrounding Islamic center with a school, library, exhibition spaces and restaurants, would cost an estimated $175 million to build.
Khalique, the project manager for Tablighi Jamaat, said that the organisation would attempt to raise money worldwide. Ali Mangera, the architect who is designing the proposed new mosque, said it is based on historic Islamic architecture and Islamic gardens in which the landscape and the internal spaces are merged. The complex, he said is based on the concept of “dawat” (invitation). “We see it as an inclusive project. It’s not solely a mosque. We are trying to break down barriers. It’s a multicultural city, after all”, he said.
(Pic courtesy: Mangera Yvars Architects, London)
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