DUBAI: Qatar is looking to go green and stay religious. A new special committee appointed to review designs of mosques in the country said they plan to ensure the new buildings will be up to environmentally-friendly standards. According to local reports, the new committee is currently reviewing 18 model designs to standardize the over process of being eco-friendly, said Abdullah al-Dosari, the General Manager of Aqaf Public Department in charge of the new designs. The project mainly hopes to save power and water consumption in mosques, the Qatari daily The Peninsula reported on Sunday. According to Al Dosari, Qatar plans to establish a joint Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Waqf (endowment) to be the first international Islamic Waqaf to finance charity projects and training programs and to meet the development needs of the poorest countries in the world. Awqaf also plans to increase spending rates in the next five years to reach QR200 million ($55 million) annually, he said. Sheikh Anwar el-Mohamed, an Egyptian-born Doha-based leader, told Bikyamasr.com that the idea to bring together Islam and green ideas “literally under one roof.” Mohamed believes that “Islam and the environment are one with each other and through these kind of things we will be able to live together with nature a lot longer.” BM
