Ahwal Al-Ma'rifah: Special

The Kingdom has been keen since its founding by King Abdulaziz, may d rest his soul, to build bridges of culture between it and brotherly and friendly countries, since the Kingdom launched the "Kingdom between Yesterday and Today" exhibition in the eighties, which toured the capitals of the world and was supervised by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz, may d protect him, when he was the Emir of Riyadh. This was followed by the "Masterpieces of the Kingdom's Antiquities" exhibition, which is considered one of the most important international Saudi exhibitions witnessed by 16 world capitals and was followed by more than five million visitors in the most famous international museums. Before and after that, the schools and cultural centers established by the Kingdom in the capitals and cities of the world.

Cultural communication between the Kingdom and the peoples and civilizations of the world received the attention of His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Crown Prince, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, out of his keenness to expand the scope of the Saudi people's communication with the peoples of the world, introduce them to its specificity, and build cultural bridges centered on the human character of human societies between Saudis and others. Among his efforts in this regard is the "Mohammed bin Salman Award for Cultural Cooperation," which honors distinguished creative individuals and linguists from Saudi Arabia and China, within the cateries of best scientific research in the Arabic language, best creative artistic work, and best translation of a book from Arabic into Chinese.

This Mosque and Cultural Center

History bears witness to the white hands of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz - may d protect him - in building bridges of civilized communication with the countries of the world. Among these is the mosque and Islamic center that His Majesty ordered (when he was the Emir of the Riyadh region) to be built in the city of Marbella in Spain about 40 years a. For the first time after the fall of Andalusia by more than 500 years, a mosque and cultural center bearing the name of King Abdulaziz Mosque were established at the expense of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques.

In an official ceremony, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques inaugurated the King Abdulaziz Mosque in 1981 in the Spanish coastal city of Marbella, which was the Andalusia of the Arabs five centuries a, returning Islam and Muslims to it after leaving it for a long time, thus becoming the first mosque for Muslims from which the call to prayer (Adhan) has sounded since they lost the "Lost Paradise" in the Kingdom of Spain.

King Salman was the first to pray in the mosque located on the slope of a flat hill in the center of coastal Marbella in the far south of Andalusia, opposite the other side of the Strait of Gibraltar, where Morocco is only 14 kilometers away. It is built on an area of 10,500 square meters and was designed by the Spanish architect from Cordoba, Juan Mora Urbano, and accommodates 800 male and female worshippers. It is surrounded by gardens rich in trees in an environment dominated by green.

At the time, King Salman placed this white mosque at the disposal of 1.6 million Muslims, including half a million Spaniards who converted to Islam. The imam of the mosque is Moroccan, Sheikh Allal Bashar Al-Idrisi, who led worshippers in the funeral prayer in absentia for King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, may d have mercy on him, in the presence of thousands of worshippers who flocked in a prayer they offered in honor of a man from whom they saw much odness.

The mosque built by King Salman does not only derive its importance from being a place of worship and performing the rituals of Islam, but also from its transformation into a giant cultural center that spreads Islamic culture in the region. It includes a library of 225 square meters containing more than 30,000 books and volumes, most of which are about Islam, heritage, Arabic literature and history, and it is constantly visited by Arabs and Spaniards.

This mosque has transformed into a new landmark of Islamic civilization, which King Salman has contributed to spreading for years, and a cultural lighthouse raising the banner of moderation and middle-ground approach, in a world where extremism led to confusion between the tolerance of Islam and the terrorism of hardliners. The King Abdulaziz Mosque is considered the first mosque to be built in Spain in the modern era; the Basharat Mosque was built in 1982 and the Madrid Central Mosque in 1988. It is also the only mosque in which the call to prayer is raised in Spain through loudspeakers.

Today, there are more than 1,200 mosques and prayer halls in Spain, and more than 1.6 million Muslims, including at least 500,000 Spaniards who have embraced the true religion, according to a detailed census issued in 2013 by the "Union of Islamic Communities" in Spain, known by the abbreviation UCID.