Turkey to Build Mosques in 80 Universities

Religious Affairs (Diyanet) leader Mehmet Görmez, annouced that they have been building mosques around 80 universities across Turkey. 

“We care about campus mosques in the city,” he said.

Commenting on the issue to Anadolu Agency, Görmez said they already opened 15 to prayer and 50 will be opened in 2015. 

"There are around 20 million young people in Turkey. We would like to reach out young people. We care about the campus mosques in the city. In these mosques, youngsters will have a religious workers assigned to work with them. We would like to see them grow in the spiritual sense and benefit from mosques.”

There are 185 universities in Turkey. 113 are public and 72 are private. 

“Including mosques into life”

Görmez added that they would like to see mosques included in the daily life by institutionalization.

“We want to leave behind the times that mosques are only used during prayers and then left out completely. There are several mosques in Turkey that can set an example. 

Görmez said that they would like to organize activities called “mosques and children meeting”, “mosques and disabled people”, “mosques and women” and mosques and youth” in the upcoming official religious affairs week. 

“We would like to see the mosques as venues where our nation could rediscover their Muslim identity and feel the love of its environment in their souls." (BK/BM)

* Click here to read the article in Turkish.