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Mobile mosque debuts in Japan ahead of 2020 Olympics

By Sulaimon Salau with agency report
03 August 2018   |   3:01 am
Muslims that are visiting Japan for the 2020 Olympics will not need to lobby around in searching of mosques to pray. A Tokyo-based company created the Mobile Mosque to accommodate up to 50 people. The mosque-on-wheels was lauched at Toyoda stadium in western Japan, and gives people a place to worship when they attend events.…

Mosque Executive Committee, guests pray inside Mobile Mosque during an unveiling event for the mosque on wheels with the capacity for up to 50 people at Toyota Stadium in Toyota, western Japan.

Muslims that are visiting Japan for the 2020 Olympics will not need to lobby around in searching of mosques to pray.

A Tokyo-based company created the Mobile Mosque to accommodate up to 50 people.

The mosque-on-wheels was lauched at Toyoda stadium in western Japan, and gives people a place to worship when they attend events.

The mosque on wheels that its head hopes will make Muslim visitors feel at home.

A large white and blue truck pulls up outside the stadium and slowly expands into a place of worship.

The CEO of Yasu Project, Yasuharu Inoue, said the possibility that there might not be enough mosques for Muslim visitors in 2020 is alarming for a country that considers itself part of the international community.

His Mobile Mosques could travel to different Olympic venues as needed.

“As an open and hospitable country, we want to share the idea of ‘omotenashi’ (Japanese hospitality) with Muslim people,” he said in a recent interview.

The first Mobile Mosque was unveiled earlier this week outside Toyota Stadium, a J-League soccer venue in Toyota City, which is also the headquarters of the car company with the same name.

The back of the modified 25-ton truck flipped up to reveal an entrance and then the side slid out, doubling the width of the truck. The 48-square-meter (515-square-foot) room can accommodate 50 people.

Muslim guests prayed inside the mosque, which includes outdoor taps and a washing area for pre-worship cleansing.

Indonesian students who were victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami also participated in the debut ceremony.

“The Mobile Mosque is very important to Muslim people such as Japanese people or tourists, Muslim tourists who visit Japan,” said 14-year-old Nur Azizah. “I want to show my friends.”

An estimated 100,000 to 200,000 Muslims live in Japan.

Tatsuya Sakaguchi, a Japanese guest, expressed hope that the Mobile Mosque would help open people’s minds worldwide.

“Looking in from the outside at the people in the mosque, they looked very happy,” said Sakaguchi, the representative director of an Osaka retail company.

Inoue said the inspiration for the project came to him on a trip to Qatar four years ago.

Initially, the project organizers plan to target international sporting events both in Japan and overseas.

Inoue said he hopes the project will do more than fill a gap in religious infrastructure.

“Going forward, I would be so happy if people from Indonesia, Malaysia, Africa, the Middle East and, for example, refugees who are coming from Syria are able to use the mosque as a tool to promote world peace,” he said.

The majority of the world’s Muslims live in Asia, but there are very few places of worship for Muslims in Japan.

Inou said: “The idea of religion in Japan can be a bit complicated.

But as an open and hospitable country, we want to share the idea of omotenashi, (Japanese hospitality) with Muslim people. That’s why we developed the Mobile Mosque,”

The Mobile Mosque Project has been in development for four years.

The heavy-duty truck expands into a large room and is equipped with prayer mats and a water basin for ritual pre-worship cleansing.

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