Small efforts help build big Amerat mosque

Muscat: With donations from 2,000 Omani women, Al-Anfal Mosque has been officially opened.
Residents gathered to celebrate the opening of the new mosque in Al Nahda region in Al Amerat.
The agents who helped build the mosque conveyed their special thanks to the 2,000 women who were instrumental in the fund-raising required to complete the construction of the place of worship. The women, who had organised themselves into fund-raising committees, came from Al Amerat and other regions, the developers said.
According to an official at the Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs, the mosque is authorised, and it has been built with donations from citizens.
The women started campaigning to raise the money in 2014, according to the site’s agent, Ali Al Battashi, who was full of praise for them.
“They have been working hard since 2014 to collect money from donors,” he mentioned. “Their small acts of kindness added up to something bigger,” he said. “It was a voluntary activity, in which each family in the region paid voluntarily for the mosque. Recently, we got OMR33,000 from Omani women donors,” he added.
“We are staying in a new region. There was no mosque nearby. There was a real need for a mosque to serve the residents in this area,” said Mahmoud Al Yahyai, one of the worshippers.
“It was a great initiative started by Ali’s wife, who started the campaign and worked by following-up with donors from different parts of Oman,” he added.
The mosque includes multiple facilities, such as a main prayer hall, which can accommodate more than 300 people.
An external prayer room can accommodate more than 250 worshippers and a prayer room for women has the capacity to house 50 persons. The mosque is also equipped with a small library, which includes religious books, in addition to three shops to serve the residents in the region.
The mosque is distinguished by its simple architecture, which combines originality and modernity. In addition to this, the architecture reflects the simple Omani Islamic inscriptions in its designs.