The Umm al-Qura ("Mother of All Cities") mosque in Baghdad is the city's largest place of worship for Sunni Muslims.[1] Originally called the Umm al-Ma'arik ("Mother of All Battles") mosque, it was designed to commemorate Saddam Hussein's 'victory' in the 1991 Gulf War[2] and was intended to serve as a personal tribute to Saddam himself. It is located in the Sunni-populated al-Adel area of western Baghdad.[3] Costing $7.5 million to build,[4] the mosque's cornerstone was laid on Saddam's 65th birthday on 28 April 1998. It was formally completed on 28 April 2001 in time for the ten-year anniversary of the Gulf War.[3]
Many architectural features of the mosque and the surrounding complex allude to either Saddam or the war (or both). It has four minarets on its perimeter, each resembling a Kalashnikov rifle barrel and standing 43 metres (141 ft) high, marking the 43 days of the Gulf War. Around the dome are another four minarets, each in the shape of a Scud missile on its launchpad standing 37 metres (121 ft) high.[5] The dome is set in the middle of a lake in the shape of the Arab world, in which was set a 7.5 metres (25 ft) wide mosaic representation of Saddam's thumbprint with an inset magnified version of his initials, made from gold.[6][7] The mosque was formerly used to display a Qur'an written in Saddam's blood.[8] The 28 fountains of the lake, the four inner minarets and the 37 m height of each minaret together represent the date of Saddam's birth - 28 April 1937. The building is constructed from white limestone with blue mosaic decorations, and red, white and black Iraqi flags are painted on the peaks of the inner minarets.[5]
Following the fall of Saddam Hussein in the aftermath of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the mosque was taken over by a Sunni group called the Association of Muslim Scholars. It became a recruiting site and propaganda centre for the early Iraqi insurgency.[9] The association became a de facto Al Qaeda ally; its leader Harith Suleiman al-Dhari, who operated out of the mosque, is said to have played a key role in mobilizing insurgents during the 2004 fighting in Fallujah, west of Baghdad.[10] In 2007, the association was expelled by the Sunni Endowment, a quasi-governmental agency responsible for Sunni mosques in Iraq, which took control of Umm al-Qura.[3]
On 28 August 2011, the mosque was attacked by a suicide bomber during prayers, killing at least 28 people and injuring 30 more. An Iraqi member of parliament was among the dead.[11]