{"id":25788,"date":"2018-12-16T19:22:45","date_gmt":"2018-12-16T19:22:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=25788"},"modified":"2018-12-16T19:22:45","modified_gmt":"2018-12-16T19:22:45","slug":"iraq-lays-cornerstone-to-rebuild-iconic-mosul-mosque","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=25788","title":{"rendered":"Iraq lays cornerstone to rebuild iconic Mosul mosque"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nMOSUL: Iraqis on Sunday laid the cornerstone in rebuilding Mosul\u2019s Al-Nuri mosque and leaning minaret, national emblems destroyed last year in the ferocious battle against Daesh.
The famed 12th century mosque and minaret, dubbed Al-Hadba or \u201cthe hunchback,\u201d hosted Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi\u2019s only public appearance as Daesh chief, when he declared a self-styled \u201ccaliphate\u201d after the militants swept into Mosul in 2014.
The structures were ravaged three years later in the final, most brutal stages of the months-long fight to rid Iraq\u2019s second city of Daesh.
On Sunday, dozens of government officials, religious figures, United Nations representatives and European ambassadors gathered in the large square in front of the battered mosque to see the foundation laid.
Abdullatif Al-Humaym, the head of Sunni Muslim endowments in Iraq, set down the stone in a simple ceremony.
It bore a black Arabic inscription: \u201cThis cornerstone for the rebuilding and restoration of the Al-Hadba minaret and the Great Al-Nuri Mosque was laid on December 16, 2018.\u201d
More than a year after Daesh lost control of Mosul, the iconic mosque still lies in ruins. The stone gate leading up to its courtyard and the greenish dome now covered in graffiti are virtually the only parts still erect.
All that is left of the minaret is part of its rectangular base, the rest of it sheared off by fighting.
Abu Bakr Kenaan, head of Sunni Muslim endowments in Nineveh province, told AFP remnants of the minaret would be preserved, while other parts of the mosque would be built afresh, along with a museum about its history and adjacent homes.
The five-year project will be financed by a $50.4 million (44.6 million euro) donation from the United Arab Emirates.
The first year will focus on documenting and clearing the site, while the next four years will see the physical restoration, the UN\u2019s heritage agency UNESCO has said.
The mosque\u2019s destruction \u201cwas a moment of horror and despair,\u201d said UNESCO Iraq representative Louise Haxthausen.
\u201cToday as we lay the foundation stone of the Nuri mosque, we are starting a journey of physical reconstruction,\u201d she told those gathered.
The mosque takes its name from Nureddin Al-Zinki, who ordered it built in 1172 after unifying Syria and parts of northern Iraq.
Its cylindrical minaret, which featured several levels of ornamental brickwork capped by a small white dome, started listing centuries ago.
It is featured on Iraq\u2019s 10,000-dinar banknote and gave its name to countless restaurants, companies and even sports clubs.
But in June 2014, it became infamous as the site where Baghdadi declared Daesh\u2019s \u201ccaliphate\u201d just days after the militants seized Mosul in a lightning assault.
That capture prompted three years of ferocious fighting to wrest back Mosul and other Iraqi cities overrun by Daesh.
In June 2017, as Iraqi forces closed in on a shrinking Daesh-held pocket in Mosul\u2019s Old City, the militants blew up both the Al-Nuri mosque and its leaning minaret.
Daesh itself blamed a US-led strike for the destruction.
When the rest of the Old City fell back under state control, Iraqi forces celebrated at the mosque, holding Daesh\u2019s black flag upside down and tauntingly calling out, \u201cWhere is Baghdadi?\u201c<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MOSUL: Iraqis on Sunday laid the cornerstone in rebuilding Mosul\u2019s Al-Nuri mosque and leaning minaret, national emblems destroyed last year in the ferocious battle against Daesh.The famed 12th century mosque and minaret, dubbed Al-Hadba or \u201cthe hunchback,\u201d hosted Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi\u2019s only public appearance as Daesh chief, when he declared a self-styled \u201ccaliphate\u201d after the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":25789,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}