Head of Turkey’s top religious body involved in row about new mosque.

Head of Turkey’s top religious body involved in row about new mosque. (HD)

Mehmet Görmez, head of Turkey’s top religious body Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet), has been involved in a hot debate on the efforts to build a mosque on a grove on Istanbul’s Anatolian side, saying that the love for prayer and love for nature should not be compared.

“A mosque will be built on an 800 square meter plot. You can see people who bid to build a masjid [a small mosque] on one side, and other people protesting to prevent the cutting of the trees there on the other side,” Görmez said, while attending to a ceremony to mark the opening of a new forest area in the capital city of Ankara.

“First of all, this does not appropriate,” he said.

“The love for prayer and the love for nature should not be compared,” the country’s leading imam said, adding that people should not “express their angers using such love.” Hmmm........17,000 new mosques built under Erdogan, does it really need to be there?Read the full story here.