Ankara will soon have another version of the Garden of Religions, inaugurated in December 2004 by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the Belek district of Antalya.
A mosque complex is being constructed on the Bilkent University campus, and it will also feature a church and a synagogue. Expected to be Turkey’s new protocol mosque for official visits, the complex will see completion in September.
To be named the Doğramacızade Mosque after the founder and honorary rector of the university, Professor İhsan Doğramacı, the complex will be a little different from its peer in Antalya, as the church and synagogue will be inside the mosque, forming two separate sections. The one in Belek has a garden with three separate places of worship.
However, the project has one challenge to face: Before it is completed it needs to be endorsed by the Directorate of Religious Affairs, which must make an interpretation in line with Islamic jurisprudence about the permissibility of followers of three different religions worshipping in the same place.
A number of officials from the directorate told Today’s Zaman that they knew about the construction of the complex but had no idea about the two separate rooms to be used inside the mosque as a church and a synagogue.
In their appeal for the directorate’s approval, officials from the Professor İhsan Doğramacı Foundation requested that they themselves be permitted to appoint an imam to the mosque, but they also said that they were not averse to the idea of the directorate appointing a qualified and accomplished imam to such an important mosque.
The mosque’s plan was drawn up upon the instructions of Doğramacı, the son of a Turkoman family from Kirkuk. Its architecture is described as “very authentic and republican style” by Doğramacı. Having bought the building plot shortly before construction began, Doğramacı is covering all the building expenses himself. Paying close attention to every detail of construction, he is reported to have spent about $1 million so far.
What makes the project distinctive is that it has been planned as the official protocol mosque of Ankara. The two rooms inside the mosque will be set aside for Christian and Jewish students and lecturers from the Bilkent, Hacettepe and Middle East Technical universities.
The building plot is 12,000 square meters. The mosque will sit on a 4,500-square-meter portion, and the rest of the plot will be set aside for green areas. The mosque building will also have conference and exhibition halls for conferences and panel discussions on religious and ethical issues.
In addition to the women’s section, the mosque will have two benches at the back for those with health problems that prevent them from kneeling and prostrating in prayer. There will be a moving walkway for the elderly and a separate entrance and exit for official guests to enter and leave with ease. There will also be a large parking lot.
Project based on Islamic tolerance
Houses of worship of the three Abrahamic religions sharing a common space is not actually a first in the history of Muslim Turks. The first example to be cited would be İstanbul’s Dar’ul-ajaza charity home, which for centuries had separate places for the followers of all three religions to worship. With the idea of allowing all people, regardless of faith, to benefit from these charitable institutions in mind, the Ottoman state had a worship room built for all three of the religions in this charitable place, along with innumerous others.
Similar places that combined places of worship of all three religions existed throughout the Ottoman lands, particularly in İstanbul’s Ortaköy district and Hatay, or Antioch.
When the first Garden of Religions was opened in Antalya in 2004 by Prime Minister Erdoğan, the inaugural ceremony was attended by Ali Bardakoğlu, the head of the Directorate of Religious Affairs, Alphonse Sammut, a representative of the Turkish Catholic churches, Dasiteos Aragnostopoulos, a representative of the Fener Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, İshak Haleva, chief rabbi of the Turkish Jewish congregation and the Armenian patriarch, Mesrob II Mutafyan. The Kuşadası Businessmen’s Association (KUSİAD) also launched a similar project after witnessing foreign visitors’ positive reactions to the two previous projects. The Kutadası Garden of Religions is being built on an 8,500-square-meter plot. The site will have conference and exhibition halls, too.
ERCAN YAVUZ ANKARA
Source: Todays Zaman, 12 July 2008