BERLIN // The completion of one of Germany's largest mosques, once hailed as a symbol of the integration of Muslims into the nation, has been delayed until August following a bitter dispute.
Construction of the Central Mosque in Cologne has been under way since 2009 and the mosque's 35 metre-high dome and its two 55-metre minarets already dominate the skyline of the district of Ehrenfeld.
The Islamic organisation that commissioned the building sacked the German architect, Paul Böhm, in October, accusing him of 2,000 construction errors, cost overruns and of surreptitiously incorporating Christian elements into the design.
"Mr Böhm was brilliant as an artist but he failed as a master builder," said the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (Ditib) a branch of the Turkish government's religious affairs office.
It submitted a list of flaws such as nails and wire rods that were jutting out of the concrete of the unfinished building. The grand dome also is 23 centimetres out of place, Ditib said.
Mr Böhm, Ditib said, had included Christian crosses in the shape of the layout as well as a hidden Christogram made up of an X and a P, an old Christian symbol.
Mr Böhm, a respected designer of religious buildings, denied the accusations, and complained that Ditib was to blame for cost increases because it kept changing its mind about details.
He threatened to take legal action that would bring the project to a standstill.
Controversial from the outset, many residents complained that the mosque, which will offer space for 1,200 worshippers, would be too big. A far-right citizen's group called Pro Cologne mounted a campaign against it, gathering 20,000 signatures and said that "a representative mosque with dome and minaret for several thousand faithful would change the face and the character of our hometown".
"Ditib is entrenching the Turkish-Islamic parallel society in Germany," Pro Cologne said on its website. "Turkish is the dominant language in its institutions and even some of its leading representatives in our country hardly speak a world of German. Ditib doesn't serve the integration of our foreign fellow citizens but instead alienates many Turks from their host country."
Ditib is an umbrella group for more than 1,000 mosque communities in Germany. It has said it is the biggest immigrant organisation in Germany.
Its decision to sack Mr Böhm without first informing the mosque's advisory council was widely condemned in Cologne. Critics said its actions reflected a conservative stance on religious matters by the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister of Turkey.
Germany has four million Muslim immigrants, the majority of whom are of Turkish descent. They have launched a drive in recent years to build mosques after spending decades worshipping in rickety prayer rooms and backstreet halls.
Turks began moving to Germany as "guest workers" in the 1950s and 1960s. They were invited by the West German government to make up for a shortage of manpower after the Second World War.
Half a century on, they are still widely labelled as "foreigners", even though hundreds of thousands were born in Germany, speak the language and have German citizenship.
The mosque row alarmed the Cologne city authority because the building would become a mighty symbol of division if left uncompleted. It appointed a mediator, Fritz Schramma, a former mayor of Cologne, who arranged a fragile truce earlier this month.
Ditib has refused to reinstate Mr Böhm, but agreed to allow the architect to remain on in an advisory capacity to help get the mosque completed by this summer. But Ditib's chairman, Ali Dere, refused to take back the statement that Mr Böhm had failed as a builder.
"I don't think we did anything wrong," he said earlier this month.
The agreement doesn't cover the monetary claims the two sides have against each other which will have to be settled in court. Mr Böhm said the agreement amounted to a "very delicate little flower".
foreign.desk@thenational.ae
Four-day collections of TOH
Day Indian Rs (Dh)
Thursday 500.75 million (25.23m)
Friday 280.25m (14.12m)
Saturday 220.75m (11.21m)
Sunday 170.25m (8.58m)
Total 1.19bn (59.15m)
(Figures in millions, approximate)
The specs: 2018 Infiniti QX80
Price: base / as tested: Dh335,000
Engine: 5.6-litre V8
Gearbox: Seven-speed automatic
Power: 400hp @ 5,800rpm
Torque: 560Nm @ 4,000rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 12.1L / 100km
Various Artists
Habibi Funk: An Eclectic Selection Of Music From The Arab World (Habibi Funk)
Company%20profile
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Generation Start-up: Awok company profile
Started: 2013
Founder: Ulugbek Yuldashev
Sector: e-commerce
Size: 600 plus
Stage: still in talks with VCs
Principal Investors: self-financed by founder
Brief scores:
Arsenal 4
Xhaka 25', Lacazette 55', Ramsey 79', Aubameyang 83'
Fulham 1
Kamara 69'
TO A LAND UNKNOWN
Director: Mahdi Fleifel
Starring: Mahmoud Bakri, Aram Sabbah, Mohammad Alsurafa
Rating: 4.5/5
Greatest of All Time
Starring: Vijay, Sneha, Prashanth, Prabhu Deva, Mohan
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The biog
Age: 19
Profession: medical student at UAE university
Favourite book: The Ocean at The End of The Lane by Neil Gaiman
Role model: Parents, followed by Fazza (Shiekh Hamdan bin Mohammed)
Favourite poet: Edger Allen Poe
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Yemen's Bahais and the charges they often face
The Baha'i faith was made known in Yemen in the 19th century, first introduced by an Iranian man named Ali Muhammad Al Shirazi, considered the Herald of the Baha'i faith in 1844.
The Baha'i faith has had a growing number of followers in recent years despite persecution in Yemen and Iran.
Today, some 2,000 Baha'is reside in Yemen, according to Insaf.
"The 24 defendants represented by the House of Justice, which has intelligence outfits from the uS and the UK working to carry out an espionage scheme in Yemen under the guise of religion.. aimed to impant and found the Bahai sect on Yemeni soil by bringing foreign Bahais from abroad and homing them in Yemen," the charge sheet said.
Baha'Ullah, the founder of the Bahai faith, was exiled by the Ottoman Empire in 1868 from Iran to what is now Israel. Now, the Bahai faith's highest governing body, known as the Universal House of Justice, is based in the Israeli city of Haifa, which the Bahais turn towards during prayer.
The Houthis cite this as collective "evidence" of Bahai "links" to Israel - which the Houthis consider their enemy.
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Heather, the Totality
Matthew Weiner,
Canongate
Where to buy art books in the UAE
There are a number of speciality art bookshops in the UAE.
In Dubai, The Lighthouse at Dubai Design District has a wonderfully curated selection of art and design books. Alserkal Avenue runs a pop-up shop at their A4 space, and host the art-book fair Fully Booked during Art Week in March. The Third Line, also in Alserkal Avenue, has a strong book-publishing arm and sells copies at its gallery. Kinokuniya, at Dubai Mall, has some good offerings within its broad selection, and you never know what you will find at the House of Prose in Jumeirah. Finally, all of Gulf Photo Plus’s photo books are available for sale at their show.
In Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi has a beautiful selection of catalogues and art books, and Magrudy’s – across the Emirates, but particularly at their NYU Abu Dhabi site – has a great selection in art, fiction and cultural theory.
In Sharjah, the Sharjah Art Museum sells catalogues and art books at its museum shop, and the Sharjah Art Foundation has a bookshop that offers reads on art, theory and cultural history.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Other workplace saving schemes
- The UAE government announced a retirement savings plan for private and free zone sector employees in 2023.
- Dubai’s savings retirement scheme for foreign employees working in the emirate’s government and public sector came into effect in 2022.
- National Bonds unveiled a Golden Pension Scheme in 2022 to help private-sector foreign employees with their financial planning.
- In April 2021, Hayah Insurance unveiled a workplace savings plan to help UAE employees save for their retirement.
- Lunate, an Abu Dhabi-based investment manager, has launched a fund that will allow UAE private companies to offer employees investment returns on end-of-service benefits.
