Bilal Mosque (Aachen)

Bilal Mosque, entrance Prof.-Pirlet-Str. 20th

The Bilal Mosque in Aachen was built from 1964 to 1971 on the site of the Technical University of Aachen and named after Bilal al-Habaschi . After the Wilmersdorfer Mosque in Berlin, the Fazle Omar Mosque in Hamburg, the Nuur Mosque in Frankfurt am Main and the Imam Ali Mosque in Hamburg, it is the fifth oldest mosque in Germany, and the fourth mosque in Germany was built after World War II. The Bilal Mosque is considered a pioneer in terms of interreligious dialogue.

history

The first plans to build the mosque go back to 1956. The International Muslim Student Union e. V. (IMSU), which still exists today, even if the mosque is now sponsored by the Islamic Center Aachen e. V. (IZA) is located. The foundation stone was laid on May 13, 1964. The mosque was opened in 1967, although at that time the minaret and many details of the interior were still in the planning stage. The mosque's minaret was the last component to be completed in 1971. In January 2012, the Bilal mosque was placed under protection as an architectural monument in Aachen.

The mosque was designed by Rudolf Steinbach , at the time of construction, professor of building design at the Technical University of Aachen, and his assistant at the time, Gernot Kramer . 14 Islamic states, including Mali , Indonesia , Malaysia , Persia and numerous Arab states, contributed to the construction costs of 800,000 DM . The city of Aachen was the only German donor to contribute with a donation of DM 10,000.

The community of the Islamic Center Aachen is one of the oldest Islamic communities in Germany.

building

The square, three-storey mosque with a dome and minaret ranges between classic mosque construction, classic modernism and contemporary church construction. Its original structure, with a courtyard and adjoining prayer room, corresponded to the type of Arab pillar mosque. It had exposed concrete facades outside and inside, the dome of the stair tower and the dome lights above the prayer hall were clad with zinc sheet. In 1979/80 the inner courtyard was roofed over to create a larger hall. In addition, other original components were covered, plastered or painted, so that not much remains of the original impression.

The prayer hall originally held 150 to 180 people, after the renovation between 1977 and 1980 it could hold up to 600 people (100 of whom were women in the gallery ). The cost of around one million DM for the expansion of the mosque was mainly financed by membership fees, private donations from home and abroad, especially from Turkish employees, and donations from organizations.

Islamic Center Aachen eV (IZA)

In 1978 the Islamic Center Aachen - Bilal Mosque - eV (IZA) was registered as an association at the Aachen District Court in order to give the Bilal Mosque an appropriate legal structure. Issam El-Attar (born 1927) - world-famous Islamic scholar and thinker - was the director of the IZA from 1978 to 1996. El-Attar was an opposition politician in the last democratically elected Syrian parliament (1961) and leader of a large Islamic and bourgeois movement, which consisted of Muslims and non-Muslims and which campaigned for justice, freedom and democracy. Due to developments after a military coup in Syria, Issam El-Attar was refused entry to Syria following a pilgrimage in 1964. The aim of the IZA is to contribute to the development of an Islamic identity and the integration of Muslims into society on the basis of the free-democratic basic order. Among other things, the IZA advocates a dialogue between Muslims and the Aachen public at all levels.

Networking

The IZA is a member of the ZMD. The Islamic Youth Aachen e. V., the Islamic Girls' Group Aachen, the Jungenashat and the IMSU eV (Muslim Student Association Aachen) are groups that are closely linked to the IZA. In addition, the IZA maintains numerous connections to other organizations. To promote the interreligious dialogue, the IZA u. a. in the Aachen discussion group “Religions for Peace”, in the “Christian-Islamic Women's Discussion Group” and in the “Dialogue of Religions” working group of the city of Aachen.

The IZA, which was at times also observed by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, distances itself from the accusation of having contacts with the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood. "The IZA has no organizational links to the Muslim Brotherhood or other movements," says the website with a view to the former IZA leader Issam El-Attar, who was opposition leader in Syria in the early 1960s, but his membership in the party " already in 1977 ”gave up.

literature

Stefanie Lieb: The Bilal Mosque in Aachen - a Euro-Islamic building of the modern age . In: INSITU. Zeitschrift für Architekturgeschichte 3 (1/2011), pp. 105–118.
Julia Maxelon: The Bilal Mosque in Aachen (= Rheinische Kunststätten . Issue 551). Rhenish Association for Monument Preservation and Landscape Protection, Cologne 2014, ISBN 978-3-86526-101-4 .