Federal Territory Mosque Getting Famous As Tourist Destination

KUALA LUMPUR, March 20 (Bernama) -- The Federal Territory Mosque, Kuala Lumpur not only serves as a place of worship, it is also becoming as a tourist attraction due to the beauty of its architecture and design. Through the 'Visit The Mosque' programme which was initiated in 2009, which provided opportunities for local and foreign tourists to visit the mosque complex, the number of visitors has reached thousands each year. The programme chairman, Azizah Mohd Nor said, at every visit, visitors would be given a briefing on Islam in particular to the non-Muslims and correct their negative perception on that religion. Besides that, the programme also promoted the concept and architecture of the mosque, which drew inspiration from mosques built during the Ottoman, Persian, Indian and Malay civilisation. "We give free tours to the visitors and accompanied them to give a briefing on the architectural structure of the mosque," she told reporters after a tour and a briefing session with tour agencies and the media here Thursday. A total of 27 agencies participated in the visit organised in collaboration with the Islamic Tourism Centre to provide exposure in promoting mosque tourism products to the public. A total of 4,384 tourists had visited the Federal Territory Mosque last year, compared with 1,157 during its inception in 2009, with the highest number of tourists coming from Korea, Japan, Malaysia, India and France. Azizah said the volunteerism concept which was introduced in the Visit The Mosque programme, had also attracted almost 50 volunteers from various backgrounds who were actively promoting tourism products in the mosque compared with only four in 2009. She said the volunteers were also able to speak foreign languages including Mandarin, Arabic and French to facilitate explanation to the visitors. "Focusing on the Islamic tourism products is in accordance with Malaysia's chairmanship of Asean this year as 250 million Muslims live in ASEAN countries," she said. -- BERNAMA