a b "Mosque FAQ". The University of Tulsa. Archived from the original on March 30, 2007 . Retrieved April 9, 2006.

Factsheet: The NYPD Muslim Surveillance Program". American Civil Liberties Union . Retrieved 2018-06-28. Dumper, Michael; Stanley, Bruce E., eds. (2007). Cities of the Middle East and North Africa: A Historical Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-57607-919-5.Khan, Muhammad Muhsin; Al-Hilali Khan; Muhammad Taqi-ud-Din (1999). Noble Quran (1sted.). Dar-us-Salam Publications. ISBN 978-9960-740-79-9.

Appointment of a prayer leader is considered desirable, but not always obligatory. [98] The permanent prayer leader ( imam) must be a free honest individual and is authoritative in religious matters. [98] In mosques constructed and maintained by the government, the prayer leader is appointed by the ruler; [98] in private mosques, appointment is made by members of the congregation through majority voting. According to the Hanafi school of Islamic jurisprudence, the individual who built the mosque has a stronger claim to the title of imam, but this view is not shared by the other schools. [98] Mubarkpuri, Saifur-Rahman (2002). The Sealed Nectar: Biography of the Prophet. Dar-us-Salam Publications. ISBN 978-1-59144-071-0. See also: Political aspects of Islam The East London Mosque was one of the first in Britain to be allowed to use loudspeakers to broadcast the adhan [114] Political mobilizationRezk, Rawya (January 26, 2006). "Muslim Women Seek More Equitable Role in Mosques". The Columbia Journalist. Archived from the original on May 27, 2006 . Retrieved April 9, 2006. Goldschmidt, Arthur Jr.; Davidson, Lawrence (2005). A Concise History of the Middle East (8thed.). Westview Press. ISBN 978-0-8133-4275-7. Certain symbols are represented in a mosque's architecture to allude to different aspects of the Islamic religion. One of these feature symbols is the spiral. The "cosmic spiral" found in designs and on minarets is a references to heaven as it has "no beginning and no end". [97] Mosques also often have floral patterns or images of fruit and vegetables. These are allusions to the paradise after death. [97] Rules and etiquette Prayer leading Colledge, R. (1999). The mosque. In: Mastering World Religions. Macmillan Master Series. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-14329-0_16 "A mosque is a building where Muslims bow before Allah to show their submission to His will. It is not necessary to have a building to do this. Muhammad said that 'Wherever the hour of prayer overtakes you, you shall perform the prayer. That place is the mosque'. In his early days in Makkah there was no mosque, so he and his friends would pray anywhere."

The prayer hall, also known as the muṣallá ( Arabic: مُصَلَّى), rarely has furniture; chairs and pews are generally absent from the prayer hall so as to allow as many worshipers as possible to line the room. [75] Some mosques have Islamic calligraphy and Quranic verses on the walls to assist worshippers in focusing on the beauty of Islam and its holiest book, the Quran, as well as for decoration. [52] The Great Mosque of Kairouan in present-day Tunisia was the first mosque built in northwest Africa, with its present form (dating from the ninth century) serving as a model for other Islamic places of worship in the Maghreb. It was the first to incorporate a square minaret (as opposed to the more common circular minaret) and includes naves akin to a basilica. [28] [29] Those features can also be found in Andalusian mosques, including the Grand Mosque of Cordoba, as they tended to reflect the architecture of the Moors instead of their Visigoth predecessors. [29] Still, some elements of Visigothic architecture, like horseshoe arches, were infused into the mosque architecture of Spain and the Maghreb. [30]

Budge, E. A. Wallis (2001). Budge's Egypt: A Classic 19th-Century Travel Guide. Toronto: Courier Dover Publications. ISBN 9780486149530. Reid, Richard J. (12 January 2012). "The Islamic Frontier in Eastern Africa". A History of Modern Africa: 1800 to the Present. John Wiley and Sons. p.106. ISBN 978-0-4706-5898-7 . Retrieved 15 March 2015.