Mukhtara, the village of Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, is home to a Maronite Church, to a Greek-Catholic Church which dates back to 1737 and was restored last year, and to a mosque, inaugurated in September 2016.
“The mosque was originally built by my great-grandfather Bechir Jumblatt, around 1814. It got destroyed. My father already wanted to restore it, I decided to pursue his will, ” explains Walid Jumblatt himself.
The Shakib Arslan mosque (in honor of Jumblatt’s grandfather) was designed by architect Makram el Kadi, who, instead of the traditional domed roof beside a minaret tower, imagined a cage-like structure of white steel beams sitting over a traditional Lebanese stone building.
The spaces between the blades are arranged so that from a distance, one can read the words “Allah” and “Al Insan”(“human being”).
What’s extraordinary about this mosque is that Druzes don’t pray in mosques.
The message Jumblatt wants to spread is that Lebanon is a place of diversity and coexistence.