The mosque opened in 1993 and was run by the Taiba German-Arab Cultural Association.[2] It occupied a three-story building near the Hamburg Hauptbahnhof rail station in a red-light district, in the St. Georg section of Hamburg.[3]
Interior of al-Quds
Unlike many other mosques in Hamburg which cater to the Persian and Turkish populations, al-Quds served Hamburg's smaller Arab population.[4] Under the leadership of ImamMuhammad Fizazi (fr), the mosque preached a radical version of Sunni Islam.[3] Other leaders at the mosque have included Sheik Azid al-Kirani.[3]
The prayer room for men was located on the first floor and was able to accommodate up to 400. There was a separate prayer room for women, which was unpainted and uncarpeted.[3] On Fridays, the mosque usually had around 250 in attendance.[5]
By 2004, the mosque had, according to security authorities, become a meeting points for North Africans and Iraqi proponents of jihadism. By 2009, the mosque had become a place where members of the Salafi movement traveled to meet.[6]
2010 shut down
The mosque was shut down by German security officials in August 2010 amid suspicion that the mosque was again being used as a meeting place for Islamic extremists involved in the 2010 European terror plot.[7][8][9] German authorities discovered that ten members of the mosque had traveled to the border region of Pakistan and Afghanistan, and Shahab D., an Iranian at the mosque, had joined the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.[5]
^Grieshaber, Kirsten (2010-08-09). "German mosque used by Sept. 11 attackers shut down". Associated Press. Retrieved 2010-08-11. Sept. 11 ringleader Mohamed Atta as well as attackers Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah had studied in Hamburg and frequented the al-Quds mosque