Istiqlal Mosque.. the symbol of tolerance in Indonesia

Arabiaweather.com - Ismail Qasimi - Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world, and its capital, Jakarta, is one of the most crowded cities in the world. Southeast Asia.

The mosque was built in 1978 to be a symbol of Islam in Indonesia and a center for religious conferences, lectures and seminars. It is one of the largest mosques in the world in terms of huge construction and its capacity to accommodate 120,000 worshippers.

The mosque has become one of the religious monuments that also attract tourists of their sects in Indonesia, especially since it is located in a very important place in Merdeka Square (or Independence Square), where the Catholic Church meets it on Taman Wijaya Kusuma Street, as it is a symbol of tolerance that characterizes Indonesians.

The mosque is characterized by the simplicity of its design from the inside and outside, which gives it great prestige, and although the idea of a great Islamic building haunted the leader Wahid Hashim since the fifties after obtaining freedom in 1949, then it was designed in the year 1954 by the engineer Frederic Silaban, but this huge edifice It was very many years after independence, and the process of building the mosque took 17 years under the supervision of Indonesian President Sukarno.

Sukarno insisted on the place of construction of the mosque according to the Javanese tradition that imposes its construction near the royal palace and the main city square, and added that it should be built near the Jakarta Catholic Cathedral to be a symbol of religious tolerance according to the national philosophy of the Indonesian nation.