Where was the "farthest mosque"?

Submitted by Kevin Snapp (United States), Jan 8, 2006 at 20:23

Mr. Sulaman states that in Islam all buildings where God is worshipped, including Christian churches and Jewish synagogues, can be referred to as "mosques." I'm not sure what his point was. If he meant that a Christian place of worship on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem in Muhammad's time could have been the "farthest mosque" of the Quran, he solves the problem of "mosque" only by creating a new problem of "furthest."

If a Christian place of worship counts as a "mosque," the furthest such "mosque" in Muhammad's time would have been, I would guess, somewhere in Ireland. The Irish believe their Emerald Isle is a little closer to Heaven than anywhere on earth (except possibly Jerusalem), but would not be pleased to learn that some ruin of a seventh-century Irish church is an Islamic holy site required to be under Muslim supervision.

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