History
During a meeting at Atlantic Hotel (Hamburg) in 1953, a group of Iranian residents of Germany discussed the need to establish their own religious center. A letter was sent to the late Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Husayn Borujerdi asking him for help; Grand Ayatollah agreed with the plan and donated 100,000 Rials to the center. The construction began in 1960 and by 1965 it was completed. In the same year Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti was appointed to lead the center.
During the 1970s the centre played a significant role in bringing about the political rising of Iranian students in the West against the Shah and ultimately contributed to the Iranian Revolution.
In 2007, the center announced the launch of first Shia Union in Europe.
Today the centre continues to play a role in furthering mutual understanding of Iranian Shia and the Western World.
Read more about this topic: Islamic Centre Hamburg
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“While the Republic has already acquired a history world-wide, America is still unsettled and unexplored. Like the English in New Holland, we live only on the shores of a continent even yet, and hardly know where the rivers come from which float our navy.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)