Jamal Abdel Nasser Mosque, Central mosque in Al-Bireh, Palestine.
Jamal Abdel Nasser Mosque is the largest mosque in al-Bireh, in the central West Bank. Its design mixes old and new styles, with arches, carvings, coloured stone and stone columns. It has a large meeting hall, a two-storey women's prayer area, a 2,000-square-metre prayer space after a 1999 expansion, and a ritual washing area with 35 facilities.
Founded in 1962 in downtown al-Bireh, the mosque opened as the New al-Bireh Mosque. It took its present name in 1970, after the death of Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser. During the First Intifada residents also called it after Sayyid Qutb, and it became known as the Martyrs' Mosque because funerals were held there. Its last expansion, in 1999, quadrupled its area to 2,000 square metres.
Built as the New Al-Bireh Mosque, it was renamed in 1970 after Gamal Abdel Nasser died; residents also called it Sayyid Qutb during the First Intifada and Mosque of the Martyrs, since funerals for the slain set out from here. Its library, the largest in the Ramallah and Al-Bireh governorate, holds hundreds of religious texts used by graduate researchers.
The mosque sits in the heart of al-Bireh's central market, between Ramallah and al-Bireh, so it is easy to reach on foot from the surrounding streets. Its ablution area holds 35 washrooms plus four smaller ablution points serving visitors and people heading into the market centre. The prayer hall and women's two-storey prayer section are in use daily; the central library draws researchers working on master's and doctoral theses.
On 14 March 2002 the Israeli army took over the mosque and used its minaret as a sniper position, killing four Palestinians. On 8 February 2019 an Israeli special force raided the building and seized its surveillance camera recordings. On 9 October 2015 the mosque held the largest funeral in al-Bireh for Muhannad al-Halabi, who died after a stabbing attack in Jerusalem.
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