The AL ASQUA MOSQUE is one of the places where members of the Turkish community in The Hague meet and pray. Until 1975 the building was used as a synagoge. The minarets were added in 1985. The mosque is tucked away in a courtyard and easy to miss.
The mosque is open all day and I met with a warm welcome when I showed interest in seeing the interior. After taking off my shoes I could enter and was struck by the light interior, the deep red carpet, the blue tiles and the intricate calligraphy. A chart on the wall showed prayer times which depend onthe position of the moon.
The Imam was reading from the Koran. Men stood in a line one next to the other. After the call to prayer they bent down and prayer started. There were only some 20 men, most of them over forty. They had come to praise Allah and to enjoy each other's company.
One of them told me that it was different on Fridays when young men and the women joined them. Men pray on the groundfloor, women in the upper gallery.
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