 Bern city says no to Islamic cultural centre
A project to build one of the largest Islamic cultural centres in Europe in the Swiss capital, Bern, will not be realised, it was announced on Friday.
The Bern authorities said they had other plans for the zone, a former abattoir area in Wankdorf, in the northern part of the city.
The 23,000 square metre centre, the concept of which had been proposed by Umma, a Bern-based Islamic coordination centre, would have comprised a museum on Islam, a mosque, a convention centre, offices and a four-star hotel.
The zone in the foreground, in front of the Wankdorf stadium, will be set aside for a clinic (wankdorf.info)
* An Islamic group’s plan to build a huge Islamic center (with a mosque, a museum, a convention center, and a hotel) in the heart of the capital of Switzerland has been rejected: Bern decides against Islamic cultural centre.
A project to build one of the largest Islamic cultural centres in Europe in the Swiss capital, Bern, will not be realised, it was announced on Friday.
The Bern authorities said they had other plans for the zone, a former abattoir area in Wankdorf, in the northern part of the city.
The 23,000 square metre centre, the concept of which had been proposed by Umma, a Bern-based Islamic coordination centre, would have comprised a museum on Islam, a mosque, a convention centre, offices and a four-star hotel. The plan was revealed in a Swiss newspaper in April. Supporters had said that central to the project was “the prospect for a differentiated dialogue with Islam”.
Announcing their decision, Bern city officials said the land, part of the development project called “Wankdorf City”, had been set aside for a regional medical centre. City official Barbara Hayoz said that for the moment Bern did not have any other land available on which to house the Islamic centre. …
Umma said in a statement on Friday that it had noted the decision with regret and that it was the city’s right to decide on such projects. But it added that it would have preferred a closer examination of the proposal and an exchange of views before the decision was made.
The centre would have cost an estimated SFr60-80 million ($72-96 million) and would have been named the Avicenna Centre after a Persian philosopher and scientist who lived 1,000 years ago.
Islamophobia and the versus: ISLAMPHILIA. Introducing a Cultural Project involving Islam in Rio de Janeiro, BRAZIL
Dear Sirs,
First of all, I would like to thank you for the opportunity of introducing this brief letter to you and congratulate you for the outstanding work.
The aim of this email is to introduce and divulge what we are making since December of 2004 in Rio de Janeiro – BRAZIL. In fact, 2/3 of the work is already finalized as you can see in our provisory Home Page (http://br.geocities.com/al_sultanyia). Any help will be welcomed and we would be very grateful if you can divulge our Project.
Al-Sultaniya is the name of the Cultural Complex in New-Mameluke style. The option for building a new place in this specific style of architecture is due to our desire of making a homage and reverence to the Islamic World… and privileging the most famous Dynasty of the Medieval Near East: The Mameluke Dynasty. A Dynasty which ruled for almost two hundred years a big part of the Near East, between 1250 and 1517. At last, we are doing a and a humble reverence for the good and kind side of mankind, bringing and showing to the Western World one of the most beautiful sides of the Islamic World: its architecture.
The building of AL-SULTANYIA CULTURAL COMPLEX covers more than 21.527 square feet (over 2000 square meters) and will be devoted to house a Cultural Centre for temporary events, the Mankind Museum assembling a nice collection of art works and antiquities which will be arranged in 13 rooms plus a underground complex of galleries (where will be displayed the funerary archaeology collection), a Library of Humanities with nearly 30.000 titles, a Documentation Centre with circa of 9.000 documents and original photography’s and many other installations of a contemporaneous institution fit in a building of old architecture. On the third storey, we have a semi-opened area, including Arabic gardens, marble fountains, a planetarium, an open air theatre and others. A part of the building will be the headquarter of the Institute of Egyptology, founded in January of 1990.
For further information, please visit the following sites:
1) the provisory HomePage of the Al-Sultanyia Cultural Complex is : http://br.geocities.com/al_sultanyia/
2) interview to a Spanish magazine: http://www.ivde.org/files/maat/maat2006-2.pdf
3) interview in a Arab Agency of News: http://www.anba.com.br/ingles/noticia.php?id=14139
4) Recently, I organized a group at ARCHNET which intend to promote the study of the revival of Islamic architecture and arts in the western world. Also, intend to show the progress of Al-Sultaniya, the new-Mameluke complex of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil:
http://archnet.org/gws/RISAWEW
If you have interest you can find references about me and my work searching Yahoo and Goggles Search writing: “claudio prado de mello†and/ or “instituto de egiptologiaâ€. There you can find that we are working hard for many years and we already have some recognition in the field.
Hoping that my first contact can be welcomed and contribute as an additional new in such important Event, I thank you your attention beforehand.
Yours Sincerely.
Claudio Prado de Mello
thanks