MALAYSIA’S CHINESE MOSQUE ATTRACTS TOURISTS

        Kuala Lumpur, 22 Syawal 1434/29 August 2013 (MINA)  – A new mosque celebrating the Chinese architecture in Ipoh Malaysia’s Perak state is attracting tourists and non-Muslims as the first Chinese Muslim mosque in the country totally built based on Chinese architecture.

        “We have received requests from non-Muslims to visit this mosque,” Dr Fadzli Cheah Abdullah, committee deputy chairman of Muhammadiah Mosque, also known as the Chinese Muslim Mosque, was quoted by New Straits Times.

        “We welcome any non-Muslim who wants to visit the mosque, provided he or she abides by the rules set by the mosque committee,” he added at a gathering at the mosque.

          The Muhammadiah mosque was first inaugurated earlier this month before `Eid Al-Fitr celebrations, which marked the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan.

          The RM4 million mosque, which can accommodate about 1,000 worshippers, is the first Chinese Muslim mosque in the country totally built based on Chinese architecture.

         It has drawn attention after a documentary on the mosque was aired by ntv7 and TV3 earlier in August, OnIslan.net quoted by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

         Fadzli, who is also Chinese Muslim Association of Ipoh president, said visitors were required to show respect and were forbidden from making noise at the mosque compound.

         He said visitors must be decently dressed and female visitors were required to wear headscarf to enter the main prayer hall.

         Visiting hours are from 9am to noon and 2.30pm to 4pm daily.

        Attending the mosque event, Dr Zambry Abd Kadir, the chief executive of the state government, announced an allocation of RM300,000 from the state government to be used for the mosque’s activities.

Other Mosques

         After the success of the first Chinese Muslim mosque, a new Beijing Mosque was suggested in Rantau Panjang as a mixture of Chinese and Siamese architectures.

         “Another Chinese Muslim mosque is being built in Malacca by the Malaysian Chinese Muslim Association and is about 40 per cent complete,” Mohd Yusop Husin, director of the Perak Islamic Religious Department (JAIPk) told New Straits Times.

        “The association is also planning to build another Chinese Muslim mosque in Kuala Lumpur.”

        Yusop said there were 7,000 Chinese Muslims in Perak, with 1,500 of them living here.

        “JAIPk is conducting Islamic religious classes twice a week for Chinese Muslims at the Malaysian Chinese Muslim Association centre in Greentown here.”

         Usually dubbed the “melting pot” of Asia for its potpourri of cultures, Malaysia has long been held up as a model of peaceful co-existence among its races and religions.

        Malaysia has a population of nearly 26 millions, with Malays, mostly Muslims, making up nearly 60 percent.

        Ethnic Chinese and Indians – most of them Buddhists, Hindus and Christians – make up about 35 percent.

         There are about 57,000 Chinese Muslims in Malaysia.(T/P08/E1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)