Faithful spurn US-built mosque

2004-02-25 12:25

Khost, Afghanistan - The two signs sit side by side by the road on the outskirts of the city of Khost in southern Afghanistan.

"Matachina Madrassa" reads a rusty, battered metal plaque. A metre away is a brand-new stone on which is written in fresh lettering: "Matachina mosque, reconstructed in 2002... with the help of the American people."

On November 16, 2001, during the heat of the US-led war against the Taliban regime, at least 34 people lost their lives here. The dead included fighters but also religious students, women and children, killed during the bombardment of this Islamic school and mosque in the suburbs of Khost.

Reconstructed

The building has since been reconstructed almost identically with the financial support of the United States army.

Some rubble and a toppled brick wall are the only evidence of the bombing.

And a new mosque has been rebuilt on the site of the carnage. A wooden door, decorated with Arabic writing, opens on to a large, empty vault. Inside, a painted niche indicates the direction of the holy city of Mecca, towards which the faithful pray.

An already dusty plastic floor covering sits between the imposing stone pillars supporting the building. The only exaggerated decoration in this spartan decor is a made-in-China plastic gold clock fixed high on the wall.

Nobody ever comes

"Nobody ever comes into this mosque, what are you doing here," asks a soldier from a neighbouring garrison.

The mosque's guard lives just metres from the building, in a mud-brick home. The door is padlocked shut. "The man has gone to pray in another mosque."

The new Matachina mosque is almost always empty. Hardly refinished, it is already abandoned as the faithful prefer to pray elsewhere. And welcoming them are the nearby tombs of the "shahids" or martyrs of the madrassa.

The bodies of the 34 victims are interred at the end of a simple earthen path, their resting place squeezed between four mud-brick walls. Seated on a threadbare mat, an old man wearing a turban and a long white beard greets visitors with a slow nod as he fingers his prayer beads.

The mausoleum holds about 30 graves, each marked with a small sign: "Taj Rahman, of Karachi", "Bachir Mohammad, of Badakhshan", "Arab martyr"...

Delicately placed within pieces of rags, rest dozens of Qu'rans which had been placed in the old mosque for storage and were destroyed by the bombs. They too form part of the tomb.

The mausoleum attracts hundreds of people on Wednesdays and Fridays. They come from Khost, but also the neighbouring provinces of Paktia, Paktika and even from Pakistan to pray, and honour the martyrs.

Local officials cannot force people to attend the new mosque but they have refused to build a grander building for the martyrs on the site where their bodies rest.

- AFP