Ramadan Karim! Indonesian President @jokowi accompanied PM @narendramodi during a visit to Istiqlal Mosque, the national mosque of Indonesia and the largest in southeast Asia, in the holy month of Ramadan.
Prime Minister Modi was accompanied by Indonesia President Joko Widodo during his visit to the mosque which was built to commemorate Indonesian independence and opened to the public in 1978.
“Glad to have visited the Istiqlal Mosque, one of the largest mosques in the world,” Modi said in a tweet.
Istiqlal Mosque is the largest mosque in Southeast Asia and the third largest Sunni mosque in term of capacity. It is named ‘Istiqlal’, an Arabic word for “independence”.
Positioned next to Merdeka Square and the Jakarta Cathedral, the mosque was built after 17 years of construction and can accommodate over 120,000 worshippers.
Among foreign dignitaries who have visited the mosque in the past include former US Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, Britain’s Prince Charles, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and King Salman of Saudi Arabia.
Indonesia has the world’s largest Muslim population followed by Pakistan and India.
