Modern mosque attracts worshippers

$AFAK TIMUR

ISTANBUL – Hurriyet Daily News

Though Istanbul is full of historic mosques that draw foreigners
and Turks alike, mosques constructed in the past 10 to 20 years
are hardly tourist attractions, being generally criticized for
their lack of aesthetic value.

One new building seems to be an exception to that rule: People who
come to pray there cannot keep themselves from snapping
photographs, an unusual sight at a newer mosque.

“It is extraordinarily beautiful,” said $evki Yorulmaz, 60, who
left Shakirin Mosque in the Uskudar district of Istanbul’s
Anatolian side after Friday prayers. “There are no words to
describe it; one can feel the reverence while praying.”
“The mosque is so beautiful and different [from others],” added
Emel Tetik, 60, who had also come to the mosque to pray.
Opened to worshippers in May, Shakirin Mosque has been called the
most modern mosque in Turkey because of its architectural
structure, which was drawn up by Husrev Tayla. A female architect,
Zeynep FadIllIoglu, designed the mosque’s interior, a newsworthy
detail that has given it a touch of glamour.

“It is transparent. It is in harmony with contemporary
architecture,” said $ukrettin Guldetuna, another member of the
community.

Added his wife, Dilek Guldetuna: “It is modern, but it is not
cold.”

The couple came to the mosque with their children for Friday
prayers; Dilek Guldetuna had already seen the mosque and wanted to
show it to her husband.

Women pay attention

Women in particular have demonstrated strong interest in the new
mosque. A young woman sitting with her family in the building’s
garden said they had come to see the mosque while visiting
relatives in Istanbul. “Our relatives told us that the mosque is
so beautiful, and we came,” said the woman, who is from the
southeastern province of Urfa, but declined to give her name.
That Friday, there were so many female visitors there was no room
for latecomers in the area designated for women. The small,
illuminated balcony was so full that mosque employees allocated a
place outside for a woman who came late for the prayer.

The entire mosque was crowded for Friday prayers and some men also
stayed outside to pray. The assembled community was young and
contained many people from different segments of society.

“There is not a stable community for this mosque,” said muezzin
Bilal Acar, the person who gives the call to prayer. He added that
the building’s transparent architecture makes the community
concentrate more on prayer, as the green trees and the graveyard
they can see outside the mosque remind them of the afterworld.
The mosque is near a main street and close to one of the largest
graveyards in Istanbul. Visitors from Bahrain, Mexico and Canada
have all come to see it. “That means that the mosque is known both
in the East and the West,” Acar said.

Another visitor that Friday was a young Catholic from Poland, law
student Krzysiek Jankowski, who said he was “so impressed” as he
sat in the garden of the mosque, reading pamphlets about Islam
that he had taken from the famous Blue Mosque in Sultanahmet.
Jankowski said he noticed the mosque while passing by and had come
to look after he heard the call to prayer. “It is a modern style,”
he said.

Shakirin Mosque was built in honor of Ibrahim and Semiha $akir by
their three children. The construction took four and a half years.
Inside the mosque, transparent boards at the entrance give
information in both Turkish and English about the prayers written
on the mosque’s walls.