The Macau Mosque and Cemetery (; ) is the only

mosque A mosque ( ), also called a masjid ( ), is a place of worship for Muslims. The term usually refers to a covered building, but can be any place where Salah, Islamic prayers are performed; such as an outdoor courtyard. Originally, mosques were si ...

and

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite, graveyard, or a green space called a memorial park or memorial garden, is a place where the remains of many death, dead people are burial, buried or otherwise entombed. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek ...

Macau Macau or Macao is a special administrative regions of China, special administrative region of the People's Republic of China (PRC). With a population of about people and a land area of , it is the most List of countries and dependencies by p ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, located in the parish of Nossa Senhora de Fátima.

History

It is believed that Macau Mosque was built by Muslims who arrived with the Portuguese army. Originally, these Muslims were recruited from

South Asia South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...

by the army. Within the complex area, there are also Muslim cemetery with some of the tombs dated back for hundreds of years, indicating that Islam had arrived in Macau since hundreds of years ago. In 1996, the IAM submitted a redevelopment plan of the mosque to Portuguese Macau government but was not approved. To accommodate the increasing number of Muslims in Macau, in 2006 the IAM applied for government permission to build a new larger mosque in area adjacent to the current mosque building. In the late months of 2007, Macau Mosque underwent renovation. In the future, the new mosque is planned to be double in size to be a more modern mosque for Macau with a total area of 1,881 m², 50 meters high and can accommodate up to 600 worshipers. An Islamic center, cheap Halal restaurant, 30-room hostel and classroom and 127-meter high 38-story residential building will also be constructed. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, the

Government of Macau The Government of the Macao Special Administrative Region, commonly known as the Macao Government, is the Executive_(government), executive authorities of Macau. Formed on 20 December 1999 in accordance with the Sino-Portuguese Joint Declarati ...

ordered the mosque to be closed for one month.

Architecture

The Macau Mosque and Cemetery area consists of the mosque, extended area of the mosque, the cemetery, headquarters of the Islamic Association of Macau, ablution place, badminton court and playground. The size of Macau Mosque is around 6.5 meter x 12 meter which can accommodate around 100 worshipers. The Macau Mosque and Cemetery entrance gate was donated by Halima binti Sheik on 27 June 1973 in the memory of Adam Sheik.

Activities

Macau Mosque houses the headquarters of the Islamic Association of Macau (IAM; ; Portuguese: Associação Islâmica de Macau), which manages the daily operation of the mosque. The association was founded in 1935 in

Portuguese Macau Macau was under Portuguese Empire, Portuguese rule from the establishment of the first official Portuguese settlement in 1557 until its Handover of Macau, handover to China in 1999. It comprised the Municipality of Macau and the Municipality of ...

. The association is financially assisted by the

Islamic Union of Hong Kong The Islamic Union of Hong Kong is an Islamic charitable and non-profit organisation in Hong Kong, China. The headquarters of the union is at the Ammar Mosque and Osman Ramju Sadick Islamic Centre. History The organisation was founded over 110 ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

. More people visit the mosque on Sunday during their off days due to their tight working schedule in the weekdays or for wedding and during big Islamic festivities, such as

Eid al-Adha Eid al-Adha () is the second of the two main festivals in Islam alongside Eid al-Fitr. It falls on the 10th of Dhu al-Hijja, the twelfth and final month of the Islamic calendar. Celebrations and observances are generally carried forward to the ...

. Most of them do the

Quran reading In Islam, (pl. ; ) refers to the ways or fashions that the Quran, the holy book of Islam, is recited. More technically, the term designates the different linguistic, lexical, phonetic, morphological and syntactical forms permitted with rec ...

or Islamic studies activities. During Eid al-Adha, the Muslims sacrifice cows and slaughter them at the Macau Slaughter House.

Transportation

In the future, Macau Mosque and Cemetery will be served from Zona do Nordeste Station of the

Macau LRT The Macau Light Rapid Transit (MLRT, zh, 澳門輕軌系統; , MLM) is a mass transit system in Macau and the first railway system of the city. The first phase of the project's construction began in February 2012, and the first section of the Taip ...

. However, the LRT Macau Line project has been put on hold.

References

External links