Turkey: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has on Friday inaugurated the country’s newest and largest mosque in Istanbul. The new mosque is on the Asian side of Istanbul and took nearly six years to complete
Construction of the largest mosque, Camlica Mosque Complex, began in 2013 which has a capacity to hold 63,000 worshipers at a time. The Camlica mosque has a combination of Seljuk and Ottoman architectural style.
The previous huge capacity holder mosque in Turkey was in the southern province of Adana. Sabanci Central Mosque which was unveiled in 1998 can host up to 28,500 worshippers.
According to Al-Jazeera news reports, during the unveiling ceremony of the nation’s largest mosque, Erdogan criticized attacks against places of worship.
Erdogan was quoted by The Daily Sabah as saying, “Attacks in the name of religion on places of worship or innocent civilians constitute terrorism, not jihad,” adding, “Those who attack mosques or those who target churches share the same dark mentality, they’re all common enemies of humanity.”
Besides the Camlica mosque, the premises contain a library, conference hall gallery, as well as, a museum of Turkish Islamic art along with other several workshops.
The opening ceremony was attended by Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh, Senegalese President Macky Sall, Guinean President Alpha Conde and Albanian President Ilir Meta, along with other foreign envoys.