Great Mosque of Mecca

From canceled iftar feasts to suspended mosque prayers, Muslims across the Middle East are bracing for a bleak month of Ramadan fasting as the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic lingers.

Turkey’s biggest mosque, the construction of which in Istanbul’s Çamlıca Hill is approaching an end, will cost $100 million, which amounts to just a third of the initial estimate, its architects told daily Hürriyet on June 15. Click through for the photo story...

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan conducted the Umrah while in Saudi Arabia on Feb. 15, state-run Anadolu Agency has reported.

Erdoğan visited the al-Masjid an-Nabawi, a religious site that includes Prophet Muhammad's grave in Medina. 

Erdoğan subsequently traveled to Mecca, where he visited the Masjid al-Haram late on Feb. 15.