The Huzaifa Mosque in Bustan al-Qasr district in Syria's Aleppo was destroyed during the fighting in 2012. The local imam was wounded by a sniper, but he did not leave the city: he took in a family of refugees and now he works with children
ALEPPO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd July, 2019) The Huzaifa Mosque in Bustan al-Qasr district in Syria's Aleppo was destroyed during the fighting in 2012. The local imam was wounded by a sniper, but he did not leave the city: he took in a family of refugees and now he works with children. The mosque is almost restored.During the war, Aleppo became one of the centers of intense fighting between the government and the militants. The city was extensively damaged, and many local sights, including religious buildings, were destroyed. Aleppo was fully freed from terrorists in 2016.
Imam Aissa Qassim said that in 2012, during the fighting for the eastern areas, the mosque had been on the front line. According to him, the militants were dumping hundreds of shells in the area every day, turning the mosque into a pile of rubble. For the first time the imam got injured when a shell fragment injured his hand, and, after a while, he was almost killed by a terrorist sniper.
"During the war, I lived, you could say, on the front line, just across from the mosque. A sniper shot me when I was walking here. I saw death that day, but Allah saved my life," he said.
Despite heavy fighting, the imam did not leave Aleppo and is now confident that he made the right decision.
Now the part of the city where the Huzaifa Mosque is located is practically beyond repair. However, it was decided to reconstruct the mosque itself. The work is well underway, and, according to the builders, two-thirds of the building have already been repaired.
The imam is now teaching local children right inside the mosque. He also took in a family of refugees from Idlib, which managed to escape the territories under the militants' control, but had no place to go.
"The militants killed my wife, my children and I fled from eastern to western Aleppo. When it became dangerous there, I gathered everything I could and went to Idlib with children. I got married again there and had a daughter. I had to give everything we had so that the militants would let us leave," a refugee, Musa Kader, said.
Musa's house, like most of the buildings in East Aleppo, was razed to the ground by militants. Musa saw nothing but ashes when he came back to his hometown with his new wife and four children but he was lucky to meet the imam, who offered the refugee and his family a roof over their heads.
"When I saw this poor man, I could not leave him and his children on the street. The mosque's library got completely burned out, and, anyway, it was empty after the repairs," Qassim said.
It is planned to complete the restoration next year, as the only thing left for rebuilding is the thirty-meter (100 feet) minaret. In the meantime, Musa, who has found shelter here, helps to restore the mosque, while his children play right inside it or work with the imam who gave them shelter.
