History
After the Indonesian National Revolution 1945–1949, followed by the acknowledgement of the independence Indonesia from The Netherlands in 1949, there was a growing idea to build a national mosque for this new republic, befitting for a country with the largest Muslim population in the world. The idea of constructing a grand Indonesian national mosque was launched by KH. Wahid Hasyim, Indonesia's first minister for religions affairs, and Anwar Cokroaminoto, later appointed as the chairman of the Masjid Istiqlal Foundation. The committee for the construction of the Istiqlal Mosque, led by Anwar Cokroaminoto, was founded in 1953. Anwar proposed the idea of a national mosque to Indonesian President Sukarno, who welcomed the idea and later helped to supervise the construction of the mosque. In 1954, the committee appointed Sukarno technical chief supervisor.
There is several places proposed as the location of Indonesian national mosque; Mohammad Hatta, Indonesian vice president suggested that the mosque should be built on Thamrin avenue, on location where today stands Hotel Indonesia. Hatta argued that a mosque should be located near residential area and surrounded by Muslim communities. At that times the location is surrounded by Menteng residential area and traditional kampungs around Tanah Abang and Setiabudi area (today transformed into Thamrin-Sudirman business area). However Sukarno insisted that a national mosque should be located around the most important square of the nation, near the Merdeka Palace. This is in accordance to traditional Javanese culture that kraton (king's palace) and masjid agung (grand mosque) should be located around alun-alun (main Javanese city square), which means it must located near Merdeka square. Sukarno also insisted that the national mosque should be built near Jakarta Cathedral and Immanuel Church, to symbolize religious harmony and tolerance as promoted in Pancasila, Indonesian national philosophy. It was later decided that the national mosque was going to be built in Wilhelmina park right in front of the Jakarta Cathedral. To make way for this grand mosque, the Citadel Prins Frederick built in 1837 was demolished.
Sukarno actively followed the planning and construction of the mosque, including acting as the chairman of the jury for the mosque design competition held in 1955. The design submitted by Frederich Silaban, a Christian architect, with the theme: "Ketuhanan" (Indonesian: Divinity) was chosen as the winner. The foundation stone was laid by Sukarno on 24 August 1961 and the construction took 17 years. Indonesian president Suharto inaugurated the Indonesian national mosque on 22 February 1978. It is still the largest mosque in the region: more than 120,000 people can congregate at the mosque at the same time.
Read more about this topic: Istiqlal Mosque
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