New Mosque Comes up in Arctic Circle

A new Mosque is ready to be inaugurated in Inuvik, the most northern city of Canada. The ceremony scheduled for November 5 will now be held on November 12.

Written by

Syyed Mansoor Agha

Published on

August 16, 2022

A new Mosque is ready to be inaugurated in Inuvik, the most northern city of Canada. The ceremony scheduled for November 5 will now be held on November 12. The tiny city of 3600 population has about 100 Muslims. The city is located on the eastern side of River Mackenzie’s Delta, only 100 kms from icy Arctic Sea and 200 kms within Arctic Circle (AC) defined as 66° 33’ 39” North of Equator. The AC has a radius of about 1850 kms with Geographic North Pole as its centre. Inuvik Mosque is the first of American continent and seventh of the world within this Circle. However it may not be crowned as the nearest Mosque from North Pole as reported in a section of press.

Six other Mosques that fall in this distinct circle around the North Pole are situated in Europe. The most impressive is Masjid Nurd Kamal of Norilsk (69°20’27.19″ North) in Siberia, the northern most city of Russia. Three Mosques are in Tromso City of Norway; one each in towns Atta and Hammerfest, both in far northern Norway. An anonymous caller has claimed more Mosques in this icy region, but at the moment no specific information is available.

Some people consider Masjid Nurd Kamal nearest to the North Pole. Some others say, Masjid ‘Alnor Senter’ of Tromsø (69°39’15.01″ North) is the nearest. However coordinates suggest that location of Hammerfest Mosque (70°39’50” North) is the nearest from North Pole. (It is very simple. Latitude at Equator is zero and at poles 90°. Higher the Latitude means nearer to the Pole. It is measured in degrees, minutes and seconds. Each degree has 60 minutes and each minute has 60 seconds. Each degree covers nearly 111 kms.)

Masjid Nurd Kamal is housed in a huge multi-storey custom-built hexagon-shaped fabulous structure sitting on a platform in the outskirts of the city. Decorated with arches and painted in a vibrant blue colour, the Mosque has a magnificent golden dome and a gigantic rectangular minaret, standing tall by its side even higher than adjacent 9-storey buildings.  It can hold over 1000 worshipers at a time.

Visible from a long distance, Masjid Nurd Kamal is a landmark. Contrary to this, “Alnor Senter” in Tromsø, is housed in a normal building, a small portion of which has been declared as Mosque. Therefore, it may be correct that structurally Masjid Nurd Kamal is most northern Mosque of the world but functionally there are certain other Mosques (including Alnor Senter) which are located nearer to the North Pole.

Norilsk was built in 1930s during Stalin’s regime on one of the world’s richest metals deposits. Thousands of Gulags (prisoners of labour camps) were pushed in extremely harsh climate to build the city and work in mines and factories. Polar winds drop the temperature here as low as −58 degrees. Average temperature is recorded around −10 degrees Celsius. The city remains covered with snow for about 250-270 days a year and snow storms hit the region for about 110-130 days. The Gulag prisoners have no way to escape and many were eliminated in unbearable weather conditions. Devout Muslims constituted a large chunk of these forced labour camps as they refused to bow against extreme pressures to shun their Islamic practices and denounce their faith. The Mosque, opened in 1998, was built by Mukhtad Bekmeyev, an ethnic Tatar and Norilsk native now residing in the Black Sea city of Sochi, nearly 4,000 kms away. He named the Mosque after his parents and still cares for its upkeep. A clean shaven former serviceman, Mukum Sidikov, 42, serves as caretaker and Imam. His grandfather left Norilsk after sweating for years in the camp. Mukum, an ethnic Uzbek, returned here for a job after he was relieved from the Soviet Army. He has to keep the Mosque open till late in the night as many persons stay after ‘Isha Salat’ for reading the Qur’ān. 600-700 Muslims turn up for Friday prayers.

Tromsø (69°39’9.41″N) has an estimated Muslim population of 600-800 individuals. Till last month there were only two Mosques in this Arctic city, ‘Masjid al-Rahma’ (1992) and the ‘Alnor Senter’ (2006). Since al-Rahma is located in the south, the Alnor Senter is nearer to North Pole. Third Mosque, “Mosalla” or “Muslim Prayer Room” was opened only on October 8, 2010 in “University of Tromso”, a highly reputed research institution. Though Muslims are not more than 50-60 in 6000-strong students community, the University (UiT) has permitted them to offer prayer in a room since 2005. Now the authorities have demarcated a bigger space with all required facilities. Mr. Jarly Abakke, the Director (V.C.) of UiT officially declared the Mosque open in a ceremony. Some girl students in full Islamic attire were also part of the audience.

 Mosalla in UiT

Students have formed a Muslim Association here. Among officials there are some Pakistanis and Bangladeshis also.

Local Muslims are planning to build a bigger Mosque here. Municipal authorities of Tromso have expressed their support to the project and a Saudi donor has provided initial funds of 20 million NOK. The structure of the Mosque will not be the traditional one with arches, towers and dome but a modern building and will be located slightly further north than the planned Mosque in Murmansk, Russia.

Two more Mosques are reported further north from Tromso. In Alta (69° 56′ 25″) a Kurd native Ismail Umar arranged for congregation in his ‘Bay-kiosk’ (wooden structure), a Muslim Eatery he opened near airport in 2009. Soon he found it cramped for growing number of worshippers. Early in 2010 he made a bigger room available for devout and demarcated it as Masjid.

In July this year a group of four from ‘Alnor Senter’ visited extreme north localities of Norway and found a Mosque in Hammerfest (70° 39′ 50″ N), a beautiful coastal city, with nearly 10,000 inhabitants including 200-250 Muslims. This is the northern most recognised Town/City of Norway and the world. Here an abandoned church has been acquired and transformed into a Masjid and Madrasa imparting Qur’ān lessons to children and youth. Among all Mosques in Arctic Circle, noticed till now, this functional Mosque is the nearest to the North Pole i.e. the northern most Mosque of the world. Structurally however Nurd Kamal Mosque of Siberia is right claimant of this distinction.

Inuvik Mosque is only second after Norilsk Mosque at least on two counts: a) costumed shape, b) minarets. It has a tall minaret (30’) with a crescent on its top. No other Mosque in Arctic Circle, except these two, has these traditional features. The story of Inuvik (68° 21′ 42″ N) Mosque is quite thrilling. Most important and fascinating feature is the fact that it was built as a “Ready to Move Structure” some 4500 kms away in a workshop, expert in building RTHs (Ready to Move House), at Winnipeg in Manitoba province of Canada. To reach its destination it travelled some 2400 kms on the back of a huge trawler by road. Another 1800 kms was covered on the deck of a barge sailed in River Mackenzie. To transport such a huge structure of 1554 square feet was a challenging task. The long journey started in the last week of August and after overcoming many hurdles on the way, reached Hay-River port only on September 10. It was getting late to catch the last barge of the session. As the trawler reached the port, the barge was ready to sail. So it was quickly shifted on to the deck. Delay of a few hours may have pushed the much awaited transportation till next June. Winter has already set in the region. The barge reached its destination on October 22, 2010. The local Muslims greeted the yellow painted structure with remembrance of Allah by murmuring Subhan-Allah, Alhamdu-Lillah, Allahu-Akbar. Two plots (totalling 1500 Sq. Meters) had already been purchased for the purpose. As the Mosque was set facing towards Ka’ba (South East from Inuvik) a four-piece prefabricated Minaret was erected on its front right corner. People are thrilled to see the lights of a Minaret from far away.

The new structure replaced a 50-year old caravan, which has a capacity for only 25 worshippers. New one is good enough for 100. The structures will also serve as Community Centre, for a community of hundred odd Muslims from Sudan, Lebanon, Egypt and a few natives. Among them is one Ahmad Alkhalaf who is a prominent Project Manager and Town Planner. Abdullah Mohammad and Amier Suleiman are among established businessmen and contractors. One Muslim social activist lost last city council elections by a slender margin of 6 votes. But a majority of Muslims are attached to tourism, taxi services and transportation. Reports suggest that almost all taxi drivers, who serve tourists, are Muslim and have good chance to interact with them. The Masjid may be another destination for visitors. Due to its northern location, Inuvik experiences an average of 56 days of continuous sunlight every summer and 30 days of polar night in winter. This is a beautiful phenomenon of Allah Subhanu wa ta’ala. Hundreds of tourists throng the city to enjoy the spectacular splendour of the nature. Inuvik is connected with a highway and air stip. To drive on frozen River Mackenzie is an adventure that gives immense pleasure to motorists.

The credit for fulfilling this dream goes to the noble soul of a lady Zubaidah Hashim Tallab, who expired in January 2006. Her daughter, Dr. Susan Ghazali and son-in-law Dr. Hussain Guisti (Medical Practitioner from Makkah and a product of King Saud University) took the initiative to establish Zubedah Tallab Charity Foundation in her memory for Sadqa-e-jaria. The organisation was registered in February 2007. The Foundation has on its credit first Mosque of Thompson, Canada. Inuvik Mosque is fully funded by Z.T. Foundation. May Allah accept this bounty and give more pleasure to the soul of Zubedah Tallab.

[The writer is a senior journalist and Gen.-Sec. of Forum for Civil Rights. email: [email protected]]