Tokyo’s central landmark, the Tokyo Mosque, has grow to be a welcoming vacation spot for hundreds of Japanese guests keen to achieve a deeper understanding of Islam.
Kurra Hafız Muhammet Rıfat Çınar, the imam at Tokyo Mosque, which is affiliated with the Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet), shared insights throughout an interview with Anadolu Agency (AA) on the event of the Mosques and Religious Officials Week, celebrated between Oct. 1 to 7.
Çınar described how they’d warmly welcomed visitors to the mosque, significantly from prestigious Japanese universities reminiscent of Waseda, Keio and Meiji. These visits present a possibility to introduce Japanese guests to Islamic civilization.
He famous that an growing variety of grasp’s and doctoral college students are directed towards researching Islamic matters, and among the many most vital appointment requests to go to the mosque come from lecturers.
In addition to conducting in-person visits, Çınar has carried out distant and face-to-face interviews on Islamic topics reminiscent of zakat, foster brotherhood and divorce in Islam.
Çınar additionally highlighted the shortage of sources on Islam obtainable in native publications. To tackle this hole, the Presidency of Religious Affairs has revealed almost 30 reference works in Japanese, which have been distributed to over 100 mosques throughout Japan.
The Tokyo Mosque has witnessed a big inflow of tourists, with a whole lot of people visiting the mosque with out appointments on weekdays. The numbers soar to over a thousand on weekends when numerous actions are scheduled. In complete, Çınar estimated that round 50,000 guests, each with and with out appointments, go to the Tokyo Mosque yearly.
Çınar additionally took the chance to increase his greetings to his colleagues who performed an important position in setting up the Tokyo Mosque and continued their work there.
Among the guests was a Japanese tv broadcaster, Hashimoto, who selected to carry her filming group to the Tokyo Mosque to introduce Islamic civilization to Japanese society. She wore a scarf whereas filming contained in the mosque and expressed her curiosity in studying the intricacies of Islamic teachings. The footage she captured might be broadcast on a nationwide tv program.
Naito, a college economics scholar, talked about his curiosity concerning the authentic Holy Quran and the way his go to to the mosque allowed him to discover it.
Jouman, an worker of the Shibuya Municipality, had visited the mosque 4 occasions because of its proximity to his office however admitted he knew little concerning the Tokyo Mosque. He praised the mosque’s lovely structure and shared that, when the climate permitted, he loved sitting in its courtyard, listening to music.
An Indonesian organizer named Diah noticed Japanese individuals touring to find out about Islam throughout his visits to the mosque. He expressed his happiness at witnessing this cultural alternate and curiosity in Islam among the many Japanese group.
Source: www.dailysabah.com