Key facts
- A mosque project in Ayodhya, India, part of a Supreme Court settlement, is being scaled down due to funding shortfalls.
- The Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation (IICF) cited a lack of community interest and donations for scaling back the project.
- Original plans included a mosque, a 300-bed hospital, and a library; the new plan is for a much smaller mosque.
- The foundation has collected 15 million Indian rupees but needs 30-50 million rupees for the smaller mosque.
- A grand Ram temple was built at the site by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
The mosque project, conceived as part of India's Supreme Court settlement of the Ayodhya dispute, is being significantly scaled back due to a lack of community funding and interest, officials from the Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation (IICF) announced. Originally planned to include a mosque, a 300-bed multi-speciality hospital, and a library on a five-acre plot, the foundation has abandoned these larger ambitions.
IICF Chairman Zufar Ahmad Faruqi stated that donations have fallen far short of expectations, citing a "disinterest from the community." The foundation now plans to build a much smaller mosque, requiring an estimated 30 million to 50 million Indian rupees. To date, only 15 million rupees have been collected.
Ayodhya has been the center of a decades-old religious dispute, culminating in the 2019 Supreme Court ruling that awarded the site to Hindus. The court also directed the state government to allocate land for a mosque complex funded by the Muslim community. While the mosque project faces financial hurdles, India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party fulfilled a key campaign promise by constructing a grand Ram temple at the site, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated prior to the 2024 elections.
Reports also indicate that the Ram temple itself is dealing with allegations of theft from its donations, which has led to an overhaul of its leadership. This alleged theft has provided ammunition for the opposition ahead of upcoming elections in Uttar Pradesh.