Erdogan opens Europe’s first eco-friendly mosque

LONDON: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has attended the official opening of a mosque in Cambridge, foreign media reported on Friday.

The Central Mosque in Mill Road, which cost £23m (Rs4.766 billion) and has the capacity for 1,000 worshippers, has been billed as "Europe's first eco-mosque". A group of about 40 supporters welcomed the arrival of his cavalcade.

President Erdogan, who arrived in the UK this week for the Nato leaders' meeting, was invited to the mosque by singer-songwriter Yusuf Islam, formerly known as Cat Stevens. The musician is patron of the mosque. The main donor was a consortium of government agencies in Turkey, together with a Turkish private company and the Qatar National Fund.