Presidency of Religious Affairs (DİB or Diyanet) inaugurated its first mosque in Houston, the biggest city in Texas, United States. Turkish officials attended the opening ceremony on Thursday.
The mosque, built on two-acre land donated by a Turkish citizen, was converted from a house owned by the same donor with the aid collected from the Turkish community in the city. DİB’s deputy president, associate professor Selim Argun, Türkiye’s Houston consul general Serhad Varlı, consulate’s religious affairs attache associate professor Bilal Baş and other guests attended the ceremony.
Baş said at the ceremony that it was the first mosque opened with the support of DİB in southern states of the United States. “This is a modest, small but landmark step,” he said.
Leaders of the Turkish community and other Muslim communities in Houston attended the opening, which began with the recitation of the Quran and collective prayers.
In 2016, Türkiye inaugurated the first major mosque project in the United States, where a sizeable Muslim population lives. Diyanet Center of America, a Turkish-funded complex containing culture centers and one of the largest mosques in that country, was inaugurated by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Maryland. Built by funds from the Presidency of Religious Affairs, as well as Turkish-American nonprofit organizations, the complex – with conference halls, basketball courts, a restaurant, a Turkish bath and a cultural research center – serves as a social and religious complex or külliye, as religious/educational compounds were called in Ottoman times.
