mosque to pray?
The answer to both questions is no. Mosques have
traditionally been the center of the Muslim community, and
accordingly have been focal points of artistic expression in
the Islamic world. Muslims are encouraged to pray in
mosques because graces are multiplied in community
prayer. Mosque attendance is mandatory, however, on
Fridays and Feast Days, as well as for funerals.
Some of the world’s greatest architectural wonders are
mosques, including the al Aqsa mosque and the Dome of
the Rock in Jerusalem, and the Aya Sofya mosque in
Istanbul. The two Jerusalem mosques were built according
to the model of Byzantine churches. The Aya Sofya is itself
a former Byzantine church: the Hagia Sophia, the jewel of
Christendom for a thousand years prior to the Muslim
conquest of Constantinople in 1453. Al Aqsa and theDome
of the Rock were constructed in the seventh century after
Muslim armies took Jerusalem. Both, of course, have
become symbols of the religious and cultural tensions of
Jerusalem, and this is nothing new: the Dome of the Rock
was purposely constructed on the site of the old Jewish
Temple in the same spirit with which Muslims bricked up
the Jerusalem gate through which the Messiah was expected
to enter.