The mosque, which sits at the top of the Albaicin, the thousand-year-old district at the heart of old Granada, has taken more than 20 years to complete after being delayed by local resistance, design problems and lack of money.
From its ornate gardens, worshippers and visitors can look across a steep, narrow valley to the Alhambra, the magical Islamic palace just above the city, and the mountains behind still capped with traces of snow.
Granada's Muslim community already had two smaller mosques, but the opening of the elegant main Granada Mosque provides a new focus for the community and is highly symbolic, coming 500 years after Muslims were expelled from Spain.
The Ruler of Sharjah, Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed al-Qassimi, the main financier of the new mosque, was guest of honor at the ceremony attended by several hundred people from Spain and all over the Muslim world.
The mosque is not only a place for worship, but an Islamic center with a big library, a hall and an office department beautifully decorated with tiles. The organizers of the mosque also aim to represent Islam to the Western world and provide facilities to educate children from Muslim nations.
Granada is a city in southern Spain, capital of Granada Province in Andalusia, at the foot of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, at the confluence of the Genil and Darro rivers.
The most impressive vestige of Granada's splendid Moorish civilization is the remaining section of the Alhambra, the fortress-palace of the Moorish rulers.
RM/MR
END
MNA
Your Comment