Latin America's First Mega-Mosque Opens Eyes To Islam
By Chris Moss
Islam Online
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (Islam Online) - Residents of Palermo,
a large
middle-class district in Buenos Aires, are used to seeing their
skyline
change. New high-rise apartment towers, enormous shopping malls,
shiny gas
stations and U.S.-style fast food outlets are constantly erupting
between
the parks and plazas that represent an older, more leisurely
city.
But now a different kind of building has appeared right in the
heart of
this traditional neighborhood, occupying an eight-acre triangle
between
the Jumbo superstore and the Le Parc tower where soccer star
Diego
Maradona and other assorted celebrities keep apartments. If at
first it
looked like just another construction site, there was soon little
doubt
that the vast enterprise, with its minarets, window screens,
sun-drenched
patios and 50 meter-high ceramic white dome was something special.
But Buenos Aires wasn't getting some quirky theme mall or
amusement
center; it was witnessing the arrival of the biggest mosque in
Latin
America, a Saudi Arabian project with the personal backing of
King Fahd.
Passengers on the commuter trains passing close by stare out
bemused by
the size and strangeness of the building, which is only now emerging
from
the piles of sand and cement and scaffolding rigs. In fact, the
land was
owned by the state railways, until ex-President Carlos Menem
agreed to
hand it over to the Saudi Arabian Islamic Affairs Department.
In a city in which every square meter of wasteland not bought
up for
residential use quickly becomes a business location, the appearance
of a
mosque is something of an event. That the land is in a prime
residential
area can be taken as a signal from King Fahd and the Muslim community
that
Islam wants a high profile even in countries where the vast majority
of
the population is Roman Catholics and who view Islam as something
rather
exotic and far removed.
The project, hatched in 1995, was strongly supported by then-President
Menem, who stepped down on December 10 last year. While the construction
costs, amounting to some $15 million, are being met by King Fahd,
the
land, valued at $10 million, was donated by the Argentine government.
As
the Islamic Center covers an area that would allow the construction
of
four or five tower blocks, the actual value of the donation could
be far
higher.
As well as the main mosque, which has a capacity for 1,000
faithful, the
complex will boast school buildings, art galleries, dormitories,
a
cultural center, a sports field and a caf, as well as apartments
for two
imams and its own underground car park.
Though there is already a mosque in the capital, as well as
numerous
Islamic institutions in the interior, the King Fahd Center is
a major
event for Argentine Muslims. Estimates put the community at some
700,000,
most of whom are descendants of Syrian and Lebanese immigrants
who came to
Argentina from 1850 onwards. Anibal Bachir, secretary-general
of the
Argentine Islamic Community, is optimistic about the new venture.
"Arabs
are, after all, the third largest community in Argentina after
Italians
and Spaniards, and we hope the Fahd Center will be a cultural
meeting
place, a nexus between Islam and other beliefs. It may help to
correct
certain errors about women, The Qur'an and other principles of
Islam and
counter those sometimes propagated by the media, who tend to
highlight the
extremists."
Some neighbors have objected to having a mosque in their backyard
for
aesthetic reasons, but the architect Carranza, who has had to
learn the
terms and techniques of Middle Eastern architecture, with its
mihrabs
(pulpits), qiblas (prayer direction) and masjids (mosques), claims,
"In
Buenos Aires you can build anything. All kinds of styles already
live
side-by-side because of past immigration and as for those who
wanted
another green space, beside the fact that they already have so
many, they
can rest assured that the Fahd Center, which is open to the public,
will
give them far more space and light than a residential tower block."
At the present time, the site is hectic as 400 builders work
round the
clock, with daytime temperatures in the mid-thirties. There is
still
plastering and painting to do, the palm trees need planting and
the
fountains plumbing in, while the ornaments and a Moroccan carpet
for the
mosque are due to arrive any day now.
Dissenting Voices
Not everyone is happy to see the arrival of the giant mosque
in the center
of the city. In addition to the complaints about architectural
disharmony
and the traffic problems the mosque will create in an already
congested
area, there have been more serious criticisms on religious, political
and
also financial grounds.
Though the Congress passed the bill approving the construction
of the Fahd
Center, many see the projects as a legacy of Menem's penchant
for helping
Arab and pro-Muslim causes; Menem is often referred to as "el
turco" (the
Turk), a nickname widely-used in Argentina for anyone with Middle
Eastern
family connections. Meanwhile, some Christians have voiced their
complaints at the Saudi government's unwillingness to let other
religions
build temples and centers on its homeland and have also taken
the
Argentine authorities to task for failing to support other creeds
with
cash or land.
Since the bombings of the Israeli embassy in 1992 and the
AMIA
Argentine-Israeli cultural association in 1994, which together
claimed 114
lives and remain unsolved in the Argentine courts, there has
been
considerable anti-Arab feeling among Argentines, who until the
tragedies
saw themselves as safely outside the centers of world terrorism.
The large
Argentine Jewish population and many non-Jews feel that the previous
government failed to bring the terrorists to justice because
the local
police are implicated in the affair. Most of the suspicion has
been
directed at Iran or Iran-backed groups, but Menem's Syrian ancestry
as
well as the involvement of several Arabs in corruption and even
murder
scandals has led to a fogging of issues.
Leaders of other religions see the project as a positive step
for a
nominally Catholic but in fact increasingly secularized society
and
Christians have expressed their hope that the incoming imams
will be
pluralist and moderate. Argentina has already seen a weakening
of the old
church-state relationship and a law passed in 1994 now allows
the
Argentine president to be a non-Catholic (Menem himself had to
be
confirmed into the Roman Catholic Church to take office).
In spite of the various dissenting voices and the general
ignorance about
the Islamic faith, Muslims are optimistic about the mosque's
significance
for the future of Islam in South America. Jaffar Ali, who maintains
a web
page for Spanish-speaking Muslims, sees Buenos Aires as an ideal
location
for spreading a positive, unbiased image of Islam. "People
here have an
opportunity to see the Islamic world with particular objectivity.
Whereas
many countries were affected by colonization and decolonization
during The
last two centuries, Argentina and her neighbors were not. If
Islam is for
the moment unexplored in this country, the two thin minarets
of the new
mosque will alert people to its existence and a new bond will
be created
between Islam and Latin America."
From Islam Online