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april-may. 2019 | @Halal
The blue dome of the Federal Territory
Mosque pays homage to Turkey’s iconic
Blue Mosque.
The interior of the Federal Territory Mosque’s
dome, showcasing features of Turkish, Arabic,
and traditional Malay designs.
The famed atrium of the mosque.
K
uala Lumpur’s Masjid of
Choice is always under the
spotlight when promoting
Malaysia’s premier Muslim-
friendly Tourism highlights.
Located just a stone’s throw
away from the city centre of Jalan Tuanku
Abdul Halim’s government complex and
MATRADE’s building, the architecture of
the Federal Territory Mosques is heavily
influenced by Turkey’s iconic Blue Mosque
– with a touch of traditional Malay and
Middle Eastern design elements.
The mosque
with the most
grandeur
Unique architecture and design
makes the Federal Territory Mosque a
prime Muslim-friendly site to visit
Language not a barrier
The complete facility
The Federal Territory Mosque, or Federal
Mosque for short, showcases a community,
research and educational complex equipped
with a plethora of facilities. Unlike the more
conventional mosque, the Federal Mosque
are equipped with a meeting room, seminar
rooms, library, multi-purpose hall and even
basic accommodation.
It also has Ibnu Battutah, a Tourist
Information Centre within the mosque
complex named after the Islamic World’s
most prolific traveller. The function of the
centre is to cater both local and interna-
tional visitors (Muslim and non-Muslim
alike) interested to know more about the
Federal Mosque and other Islamic Tourism
services.
Volunteer Programme
In addition, the Federal Mosque provides a
mosque tour programme which utilises a
volunteer group of tour guides often touted
as Malaysia’s best. Interested candidates
would undergo interview and training
through the mentor-mentee programme
before becoming a volunteer.
The volunteers who age ranges from 21
to 84 years old must be well-prepared with
basic Islamic knowledge. Other than that,
the volunteers are taught the history of the
mosque, the designs it pays homage to, and
the spiritual symbolism it helms.
Visitors to the mosque would not only be
given the tour of the physical infrastructure
of the Federal Mosque, they are enlightened
by the teachings of Islam as well.
Visitors to the mosque would follow a guided tour throughout their visitation,
led by trained volunteers.
Already in its 10th year in
operation, the tour has been
receiving positive feedback and
comments on social media. ”
Some of the senior volunteers were candid
in sharing some of their experience in
giving tours to visitors. “Some visitors find
it engaging to discuss the beautiful design
the mosque has, while others are more
interested to know more about the religion
itself. We try to provide as much informa-
tion as we can to them, and we will refer to
the more knowledgeable for questions that
are beyond our own.”
There has been many visitors who went
through mosque tours, and many of them
do not speak English or Malay. This presents
the volunteers with some level of difficulty
when giving them the tour, yet they found
no burden in the language barrier. One
volunteer says, “Although language barrier
do occur during visitations from tourists,
the issue was never a big problem for us. The
tours are mostly visual experiences, and
most with language barriers appreciates it
just the same.”
The volunteers are however, equipped
with a few foreign languages. Some
of the volunteers are capable in speaking
Korean, Spanish and Russian on top of
English.
Already in its 10th year in operation, the
tour has been receiving positive feedback
and comments on social media. The Federal
Territory Mosque, dubbed as the ‘Jewel of
Kuala Lumpur’ is rated amongst the top
five most visited tourist attraction and also
the most photographed mosque in Kuala
Lumpur.