Kazakhstan opens huge mosque

Six months earlier, during its construction, a fire had burnt through the mosque, killing one person. The mosque, called Khazret Sultan, is big enough to take 5,000 worshippers and stands on a 27 acre site, roughly the size of 18 football pitches.

"This celebration is a celebration for all Kazakh people. I congratulate you on opening Kazakhstan’s biggest mosque,” AFP news agency quoted Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev as saying when he opened the mosque on Friday. (...)