CALL TO PRAYER

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 473, 1 October 1928, Page 13

CALL TO PRAYER

MUEZZINS IN LONDON MOSQUE TO COST £30,000 Every day—in the early morning, at noon, in the afternon, at sunset, and late in the evening—the cry of the Muezzin, or priest, calling the faithful to prayer will be heard in Central London, where a new Moslem mosque is to be built. According to the “Daily Chronicle” over £ 30,000 has been subscribed, and a site is now being chosen. The mosque will be on the model of the one in Paris, which was built in 1924 in the Spanish-Moorish style of the 14th century after the existing mosque of Medreseh Bou Anania at Fez. There will be accommodation for 1,000 people in the new building. The principal feature of a mosque is the mihrab, or niche, which is sunk in a wall built at right angles to an imaginary line drawn from Mecca, and indicates the direction toward which the Moslem should turn when engaged in prayer. The mosque itself consists of a large open court surrounded by arcades, with a fountain in the centre for the ablutions before prayer. Lord Headley, the Moslem peer, and the chairman of the British Islamic Society, who has recently returned from India, has organised the building fund.