'Mosque in Ayodhya will bridge religious divide'

The new Ayodhya mosque complex, designed by Jamia Millia Islamia professor SM Akhtar, is expected to bring people from different religions together, reports ETV Bharat's Md Tauseef. Akhtar also asserted that the super speciality hospital will treat everyone irrespective of religion and will have a capacity of 300 beds.

New Delhi: The Ayodhya mosque complex will not just depict the grandeur of the Islamic architecture but also bridge the divide between religions, said Jamia Millia Islamia professor SM Akhtar.

Akhtar, who is also the dean of architecture faculty, said, "Patients from all religions will be treated in the super speciality hospital which will be built on the five-acre land in Dhannipur village.

"The routes for the complex are taken from the time of Prophet Muhammad. A mosque serves the society from all corners and from that point of view we have planned to build a super speciality hospital which will have a capacity of 200-300 beds and to aware the people about our country an archive will also be made where people from all religions can refer to it, "Akhtar told ETV Bharat.

"Architecture which has the philosophy of Islam is Islamic and this complex is a depiction of Islamic architecture. In this complex a philosophy has been carried out which depicts the care of human being as humanity is primary," he added.

READ: Muslim man opposes Ayodhya mosque design

"The mosque does not depict the traditional Indo-Islamic architecture as in order to meet the new challenges of the society like pollution, one must go for contemporary architecture," the professor said, adding that it is suited for responding to challenges.

He further reiterated that architecture can never be replicated and it is created for present society and future. Architecture can never be created for past.

It is worth mentioning that Iqbal Ansari, a petitioner in the Ram Janambhoomi case, has rejected the design of proposed mosque and said that not a single point in proposed mosque represented Islamic culture and no suggestion was taken from litigants who fought for the case for 70 years.

When ETV Bharat asked professor Akhtar about his opinion over Iqbal Ansari rejection on the proposed design of the new mosque, he said, "I don't want to be any controversy. I got the task to make a design of the mosque complex on a land, I did that. Some people will oppose, some will favour."

Notably, the architecture plan for the mosque complex was released on December 19 by the Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation (IICF), a trust formed by the Uttar Pradesh government and the State Sunni Central Waqf Board.

According to Athar Hussain, secretary of the IICF, the foundation of the Ayodhya mosque complex will be laid on January 26. "...as on this day our constitution came into effect more than seven decades ago. Our Constitution is based on pluralism, which is leitmotif of our mosque project," he added.