TARFUS

From Tradition to the Future…

Hamidiye Mosque (Willingboro, NJ)

Hamidiye Mosque: In 2014, young Turkish philanthropists gathered to organize events in our local mosque. Realizing the need for a new, larger mosque, they established the Burlington County Turkish Community Foundation in 2016. They named the mosque "Hamidiye Mosque" to honor the honor of keeping the name of Abdul Hamid Khan alive in America. After much searching and overcoming obstacles, the association purchased a bank building in Burlington Township at the end of 2017. A few months later, they also purchased the adjacent detached house, combining the two plots to build the new mosque there. However, despite engineering and architectural preparations, they encountered obstacles from the municipality. While these municipal meetings and discussions were starting, at the end of 2018, an abandoned building located at 411 Beverly Rancocas Rd, Willinboro, NJ 08046, where the current Hamidiye Mosque is located, which was previously a synagogue and later a church, went up for sale and in one night, these sincere friends purchased this church with donations they collected among themselves.

Because the building was already a house of worship, construction plans began immediately without requiring special permission from the local government. The permits, which were delayed by municipal restrictions and subsequent Covid-19 public closures at the end of 2019, were finally approved on June 10, 2020, and construction began on the mosque. Meanwhile, they sold two other properties in Burlington Township that were purchased for use in the mosque's construction. Construction began quickly, but was halted again due to deliberate obstruction by municipal inspection officials. Hamidiye volunteers uncovered their plans, finding the municipality in a difficult position. Following a heated meeting with the mayor, municipal officials, municipal manager, and inspection officers, the construction team, along with the replacement officials, accelerated the construction process. The construction, which took a total of 364 days, was completed on June 9, 2021. On June 11, 2021, they celebrated their first Friday prayer with a large turnout from the local community. The mosque association management immediately submitted a petition to the Presidency of Religious Affairs requesting a permanent imam. Approximately one year later, a protocol was signed, and Hamidiye's interim imam was appointed in November 2022.

After the mosque's temporary imam's duties expired, they secured a permanent imam in August 2023 and began serving full-time as a religious complex. They transformed the mosque's residence, which was a detached house for the on-duty imams and their families, into a new housing complex, offering a better, larger, more comfortable, and safer environment. They also incorporated a new housing complex into their foundation. Not content with providing 10 trucks of aid and one truck of medical supplies to the earthquake victims of the Hamidiye Mosque disaster on February 6th, they also provided financial assistance to AFAD through the Diyanet Center of America. They also formed a volunteer team of their own members and, under the directive of AFAD, deployed in the Çelikhan district of Adıyaman.

The volunteers, having set up fully equipped tents and organized friends from Turkey, provided aid with a 20-person team for 15 days from the first week of the disaster. Hamidiye also became a socially active mosque, providing services such as providing alms to those in need, providing financial assistance, and providing food and supplies to residents of the local municipality. The mosque, which gained respect through its collaboration with municipalities, represented Turkey as a guest at the Edgewater Park Municipality's centennial celebrations. They also performed a Quranic recitation at the Willingboro Municipality's New Year's Eve assembly, inaugurating the municipal council.

The Hamidiye Mosque, one of the region's most well-known and largest mosques, is reflected in the vibrant congregation, thanks to the positive relationships it fosters with the Turkish community, including Islamic schools, Native American Muslim communities, Muslim communities of other nationalities, and the local community. This new mosque's location on approximately 16 acres of land, its easy access, its geographical location, and its location in the heart of Burlinton County, home to the largest Turkish population, have led to increased interest and demand, with the congregation no longer confined to the mosque, now confined to the classrooms, dining hall, basement, and courtyard for Eid prayers. Hamidiye Mosque offers catechism and jurisprudence classes for young people on weekdays and adults on Friday evenings. It also offers breakfast and hadith classes every Sunday morning, and has become a busy community with over 100 Quran students on weekends. Despite its relatively new status, in the last two years, 56 students can recite the Quran, eight are reciting the Tajwid for the third time, and the mosque won first place for men in the 2024 Diyanet Quran Recitation Competition. With its cafeteria serving fresh Turkish food daily, its free teahouse, two barbers, and its easy accessibility, the Hamidiye Mosque has become a complex with a large congregation for the five daily prayers.

Hamidiye has become a social mosque, offering iftars every Ramadan for 30 days, iftars and mevlids every Kandil, open all day, festivities every holiday, summer festivals, and family nights. Its construction also allows for the haram and the greeting, making it a mosque with a large female congregation. Children now know that every Ramadan is a Hacivat Karagöz celebration, and every holiday is a festival. All children's activities, including playgrounds, fire trucks, horseback riding, competitions, tournaments, popcorn, and ice cream, make it a true Omazi.

Hamidiye Mosque, which has become known as the "Turkish Islamic Center" among locals, has also set its sights on establishing an Islamic school. The mosque association's management has launched efforts to build a new school on its existing site and aims to expand its parking lot by doubling its size.

 Address: 411 Beverly Rancocas Rd, Willingboro, NJ 08046

President of the Association:

Yakup Koksaldı

609 284 1185