Monopolying a mosque by a minority ethnic group
22-12-2008 | IslamWeb
Question:
Dear scholars, praise is for Allah the almighty, my question is about the masjid and particularly the constitution of the masjid / name of the masjid / focus of the masjid. The masjid closest to where I live is owned and operated by a body called 'Xxxxxx Religious Foundation', where Xxxxxx is the name of a nationality, e.g., Iranian, Turkish, Lebanese, Indonesian, Pakistani, etc. This masjid, however, is not in the country of the same name. It is on the other side of the world. The khutbah is not in the language of domicile, it is given in the language of Xxxxx country (not Arabic, by the way), yet this ethnic group represents less than 1% of the local population. What should I do about the situation. We are in a non-muslim country. There are no materials at the masjid for dawah or teaching in the local language. The masjid committee is all of Xxxxxx origin. The masjid is not active in dawah. What should I do? Thank you for your effort. Allah is watching all things. He is all-seer. I want to serve Him according to what He has instructed and revealed. Salaamu alaykum
Answer:
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad 
is His slave and Messenger.
The mosque is of great status in Islam as it is the place of establishing the prayer and giving lectures and circles for the students of knowledge. It is also the place where the Muslims discuss their worldly matters as well as the matters pertaining to their Hereafter. The mosque was a place of leadership of Muslims at the time of the Prophet and his rightly guided companions 
and at the golden ages of Islam. As long as the mosque is built and people are permitted to perform the prayer in it, the mosque becomes an endowment for Allaah. Allaah Says (what means): {And the mosques are for Allaah (Alone), so invoke not anyone along with Allaah.}[Quran 72:18] Therefore, the mosque is not a property of someone, but it is permissible to attribute it to a Muslim person, or a given body, nationality or tribe, because of their being in charge of building it, making it an endowment and so forth. However, it is not appropriate for an Islamic body or any Muslim individuals to monopolize the mosque and prevent others from calling to Allaah in it. Therefore, you should advise the committee who are running the mosque to do their duty of calling to Allaah, and share the administration of the mosque with other Muslims in what benefits all the Muslims in that country.
On the other hand, it is not a condition for the Friday speech to be in Arabic as we clarified in Fatwa 81486, but it should be in the language of the majority of the congregation as established by the Islamic Fiqh committee.
Allaah Knows best.