Masjid Kristal (The Crystal Mosque)... Built for genuine worship or just to impress?

Continued from the posting Taman Tamadun Islam (The Islamic civilisation park) of Terengganu... made yesterday. I believe, like the Taman Tamadun, many have also heard the name Masjid Kristal, a spanking new mosque build in Terengganu which showcases glassy structures making it look like a mosque built from crystals... Here it is...

Less than a kilometre away from Taman Tamadun and lying on the same island known as Pulau Wan Man is this impressive structure known as Masjid Kristal...

I mean just look at the way all the glasses make the mosque look... Is this supposed to be the high-tech answer to the way mosques should look in the future?

Sure, it looks nice and impressive. But I for one have reservations for the purpose of building this mosque...

Visitors certainly find this mosque impressive but one must remember the real function of a mosque... A place for congregation and worship of God, not a place to impress people and show off!

Location-wise, one must say that it serves no function at all for the locals...

Situated on an island in the middle of the Terengganu river, it is only accesible by boat or from a newly built road winding pass the state muzium. Either way, it is far from any local settlement... Besides there's already a few other mosque within vicinity of the closest local populaces...

So why is this mosque built in the first place? Let me offer a clue... I think many have heard about how the state of Terengganu have been receiving a yearly royalty of 5 per cent out of the sales of petroleum extracted from its shores... It's just because of the prevailing political conditions over the last few years, the 5 per cent which amounted to some RM 1 billion have been diverted through certain hands and it is believed that these hands are responsible for having this mosque built!

On thing's for sure, the Masjid Kristal is built to impress...

It is built to show that Terengganu now have something to be proud of! Is it? Is this something to be proud of if the building doesn't really reflect the real conditions of the Terengganu people? Sure, the mosque could be said to be a reflection of the state's income of at least RM1 billion a year (from the petroleum royalty), never mind if the money doesn't actually land in the state's hand... But how can you reconcile that with the fact (sorry, I forgot who said this but I reckon it is a well-known fact OK...) that Terengganu is the second-poorest state in Malaysia?

So don't be shocked if many believed the building of this mosque and the Taman Tamadun close to it is just a way for certain people to siphon off money for their own nasty interest whatever that is... Some even quoted figures saying the official cost of building these impressive monuments as told to all and sundry is about double the actual cost meaning at least tens, even hundreds of millions of RM ended inside someone's pocket just like that. Enough said! :]