CAIRO – Eying to be the largest cultural and historic center of Islam in Central Asian and the world, Tajikistan is planning to build one of the world’s largest mosques.
"The mosque is expected to accommodate about 150,000 people,” a Tajik presidential spokesman said in a press release cited by The Financial website on Monday, September 28.
“Its construction is expected to start in Dushanbe in October."
Funded by the Gulf state of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, the mosque will be ready by 2014.
Reflecting Tajikistan’s traditional architecture, the mosque will be built on a space of 7.5 hectares (18.5 acres) in center of the capital Dushanbe.
"The mosque will be decorated with a majestic minaret, seven painted columns, embodying the seven steps of God creating the world and the seven gates to paradise, as well as water reservoirs and fountains, bearing witness to Tajikistan as a country of pure waters," said the spokesman.
The Muslim worship place will also house a conference halls for high-profile meetings.
It will also have a museum and a library.
The mega-project also includes the building of an Islamic University besides the mosque.
Tajikistan, one of the five Central Asian countries of the former Soviet Union, won independence in 1991.
Muslims constitute nearly 90 percent of Tajikistan’s 7.2 million population, according to the CIA factbook.
Source: IslamOnline
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