Inside the mosque, viewing lower floor and the balcony to accommodate more people
The Controversy
As it is a modern mosque, it has to have a modern touch, which are electric doors, a sliding roof, and lasers which shine at night from the top of the minaret towards Mecca and of course it was built to withstand earthquakes. How do the Casablancans feel about Hassan II Mosque? Well, On one hand, they are proud that this beautiful monument dominates their city. On the other, they are aware that the expense (estimates range from $500 to 800 million) could have been put to other uses. To build the mosque, it was necessary to destroy a large, shanty town section of Casablanca. The residents did not receive any compensation.
The main praying area
However, to look at the other side of the story, as it now fully operational, Casablanca could also be proud, they manage to clear the shanty area and become a tourist destination and generate money.
Everything is detailed: wall, columns, doors, ceilings, etc.
My view:
Do we need a large and big mosque for a country of 36 million people or a city of around 3.6 million population? Compare this with the not very famous Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta (with population of 15 million people), the capital of Indonesia that can cater for 120,000 worshipers at a time, it never claimed to be the largest mosque outside Saudi. Another interesting fact I found in Wikipedia about large mosques, certainly Hassan II Mosque was never close to being number 2 largest mosque in terms of capacity or area.
You might like my other post related to Casablanca:
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