Hawzah News Agency (Isfahan, Iran) – Hujjat al-Islam Sayyid Muhammad Mahdi Khademi, the founder and prayer leader of Imam Ali (as) Mosque in Denmark, had an interview with Hawzah News correspondent in Isfahan during his visit to Naserriah seminary school. During the interview he elaborated on the process of receiving a permit to build a mosque in a European capital, Copenhagen, despite the strong oppositions they received from Islam’s adversaries.

As the first question, would you please explain the initial steps taken in building Imam Ali Islamic center in Copenhagen, Denmark?

In 2001, the original idea of building the largest Shia mosque in Europe occurred to me following the process of merging some smaller Islamic centers.

With the help of Shia sources of emulations and cultural organizations in addition to popular donations we gathered enough resources to fund the project. At first, we bought a land with an area of 3000 sq. meters in Copenhagen; that’s how the construction process of the first Danish mosque began. Now, that mosque belongs to all Muslims throughout Europe.

Since 2011 this great Islamic center has offered a variety of programs to scores of Shia Muslims from different countries including, Denmark, Britain, Arab nations, Iran, Pakistan, etc.

What kinds of programs and activities do you offer in Imam Ali Mosque in Copenhagen and how do people respond to them?

Every day, as many as 100 visitors go to Imam Ali (as) center in Copenhagen to take part in different activities, these visitors include students, employees, college students, tourists who come to visit the mosque in groups. Each group makes a request to visit the mosque 24 hours in advance through email. Of course it goes without saying that this figure does not include individual visitors and those Muslims who perform their prayers in the mosque on a daily basis.

The tour begins with a warm welcome upon the visitors’ arrival in the mosque. They are offered simple food or snacks to freshen up and feel at ease prior to their visit. Then we begin explaining about the Islamic art, the mosque’s tiles, the carpets, the Islamic paintings on the building’s walls and try to familiarize them with the essence of Islamic art. After that, we introduce our visitors to the basics of Islam.

After the tour of the mosque is over and the visitors are somehow familiar with Islam and its principles, we would offer them a DVD consisting of some videos and pictures about Imam Ali mosque. The DVD includes some introductory information about Islam as well. We also hand out some survey questionnaires to ask our visitors’ comments about the tour in order to improve the quality of our programs in future events. At the end of the questionnaire, we have designed a section for them to ask their religious inquires about Islam in case they have any questions in mind, they are also asked to write down their email addresses to keep in touch with Imam Ali Islamic center for future events.

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