THE GADDAFI MOSQUE
THE GADDAFI MOSQUE
Originally the Uganda moslem mosque was called the Gaddafi national mosque is the largest mosque in east Africa and second biggest on the continent. Its located-on top of old Kampala hill which is one of the 7 most distinct of 23 hills that make up Kampala. These seven hills of Kampala include Rubaga, old kampala, Mulago, kitante, kibuli, Namirembe and Makerere each holding a distinctive religious, cultural or colonial importance.
HISTORY OF GADDAFI MOSQUE
The plan of building the Gaddafi Mosque began with former president of Uganda, the late Iddi Amin Dada in the 1970‘s. the reason to that was that Amin realized that the Christian community had well established buildings as important emblems for their religion at the hills of Rubaga and Namirembe but the Muslims lacked. There was a building to represent the Muslims on one of the hills in Kampala and thereby house which is the headquarters of the Uganda Muslim Supreme council which had been formed by the government in 1972. The headquarters were on Entebbe Road which had been taken over from the Indian-Moslem community that owned it before the Indian dismissal from Uganda in 1971.
The Gaddafi Mosque was then funded to completion indirectly in the 1970‘s and then directly in the 2000‘s by late Libyan president Col, Muammar Gaddafi.
Although, Amin and Gadafi were friends, the two were not at first. This is because the Libyan leader wasn’t happy with Amins taking over of Obote’s government because Gaddafi and Obote shared the same ideology of socialism although they weren’t friends. The relationship between amin and Gaddafi started after the west Germany government brokered their first meeting in Tripoli Libya in 1972. After many visits by Amin, Gaddafi started making donations to the Muslim community in Uganda. With the inflows of such funds towards the Muslim community, Amin started to develop the idea of constructing a magnificent national mosque and the headquarters of Uganda Muslim Supreme council and chose old Kampala hill.
When Iddi Amin had gone to Masaka Suicide Revolutionary Mechanized Specialist Reconnaissance Regiment barracks to commemorate prophet Muhammads birthday in October 31st 1976, he complained about the issue of reluctance and revealed that a lot of money was donated for the construction of the National Mosque by Ugandans and by foreign government of Libya, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iraq, and United Arab Emirates.
After noticing that some leaders at the Uganda Muslim Supreme council had embezzled the funds, Amin decided to withhold shs70m, which Saudi Arabian king offered towards the construction of the mosque. This made him embarrassed before the Libyan leader over the money he had donated towards the Muslim projects in Uganda and it was swindled by the same council members. Iddi amin commissioned the unbefitting structure by ordering the architect M.A.Karim to draw up the plans within a month.
The construction of the building later started as Gaddafi was funding its construction as a donation to Uganda. However, after Amin was toppled on April 11, Gaddafi and Saudi Arabian government lost interest in Uganda due to the fact that they couldn’t ally with the Uganda National Liberation front government which was led by president Julius Nyerere thus making the construction on a standstill because of a number of political and religious reasons.
As time went by and change of various governments, Gaddafi later in May 11, visited Uganda at the invitation of president Museveni to attend his swearing in ceremony at Kololo Airstrip. Gaddafi had his friend called Kagimu who on this visit requested him to organize for him a lowkey night tour of kampala city. Gaddafi visited places such as Makerere university and there kagimu showed him the tower of an old mosque at old kampala.
Kagimu explained to Gaddafi how Idi Amin the previous president had mobilized funds for the construction of a better mosque but most of the funds were embezzled and later informed him that the best gift he would offer to Ugandans would be the construction of a magnificient national mosque. By the end of Gaddafis visit, Kagimu arranged a meeting between the moslem leaders and Gaddafi inorder for him to fund the construction of a better mosque at old Kampala. Gaddafi was impressed by the choice of words they used in requesting the mosque.
Gaddafi accepted the request which as well was backed up by president Museveni where they instructed the world Islamic call society should fund the construction of a magnificent mosque for Uganda at old Kampala hill. He as well noted that “if its not done, Allah would on judgement day condemn him for having not constructed it, yet he was requested by a non-Muslim (Museveni)
The Gaddafi Mosque has a sitting capacity of up to 15,000 worshippers and it was completed in 2006. When Gaddafi was presented with videos and photographs of the works, he was impressed and thus agreed to attend its launch in June 2007 under the name Gaddafi National Mosque. But after Gaddafi was murdered, the mosque was changed to Uganda national mosque as the new Libyan administration was reluctant to rehabilitate the mosque under the old name. Its currently houses the headquarters of Uganda Muslim council that takes care of all Islamic affairs in Uganda.
Structure of Gaddafi Mosque
The Uganda national mosque(Gaddafi Mosque) sits on over 10 acres of land hence emerging the second largest mosque in Africa. The mosque accommodates as much as 200,000 worshipers with a seating of 15,000 worshippers in the main mosque holding another 1,100 in the gallery and 3,500 in the terrace.
The Gaddafi Mosque is a two storied building and the mosque is on the upper floor while the offices are on the ground floor. The Gaddafi Mosque is only opened on special occasions like weddings and Eid days while the offices are open at all times. The Gaddafi Mosque has large domes covered in brown mosaic and minaret (prayer tower) rivaling the typical Ugandan skycrappers as a symbol of a religious architectural superiority. The Gaddafi Mosque has a city-wide view, religious artistry, beautiful Islamic embroidery on the inside of the dome and a wonderful architectural element that pay tribute to a great deity.
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