Modern mosque in Qatar

Three years after breaking ground, the Qatar Faculty of Islamic Studies has officially opened Education City’s first mosque. Inaugural Friday prayer services were held last week, and were attended by several hundred students and Qatar Foundation Chairperson Sheikha Moza bint Nasser. The mosque, a large white cavernous structure with Quranic verses embossed into its large ceiling, is dotted with small lights reminiscent of twinkling stars, and has the capacity to hold some 1,800 people in its indoor prayer halls and outdoor courtyard. The main (male) prayer room on the first floor features an in-house, as yet unstocked library, and a large gilded mehrab in a Qur’an verse-lined alcove. Upstairs, a female gallery room complete with a separate seating area is sectioned off from the main prayer room by a high wall that separates the two genders.