New Tiel Mosque Will Include a Gym but No Outdoor Call to Prayer
The Moroccan community in Tiel is building a new mosque designed as a centre open to the neighbourhood. The building will include a gym and spaces for young people. One decision has also been made: the call to prayer will not be broadcast outside.
Construction of the new El Hassani mosque is progressing in Tiel, in the Dutch province of Gelderland. The future building will be more than just a large prayer hall. Its leaders want it to be a place people visit for its social, sporting and educational activities too, De Gelderlander reports.
The project takes a clear position on an issue that is often sensitive in the Netherlands: the adhan, the Muslim call to prayer, will not be broadcast outside the building. The mosque will therefore have its religious spaces without installing equipment to make the call heard in the neighbourhood.
That decision goes hand in hand with a much broader vision for the future complex. A gym is planned in the basement, and several rooms will be set aside for activities for young people. The association says its aim is to make the building more open to its surroundings. “We are opening our doors to the outside world,” one of its leaders told the Dutch daily.
A mosque designed as a community centre too
This vision did not emerge with the start of construction. From the outset, the El Hassani association wanted to replace its former place of worship with an Islamic and cultural centre combining prayer, sport, culture and education. The municipality of Tiel had begun planning procedures several years earlier to allow construction on the site of the former Rotonda school, on Maurikstraat.
Work officially began in May 2025. At the time, mosque leaders were already highlighting the future gym, intended not only for worshippers but also for local residents. The project also includes activities for different generations, in an approach that goes beyond the usual role of a place of worship.
This development reflects a broader trend within the Moroccan community in the Netherlands, where mosques have gradually taken on a greater social role as families have settled permanently in the country.
In Tiel, the association had until now been using a mosque that had become too old and too limited for its activities. The new building will allow it to bring prayers, support for young people, gatherings and sporting activities together under one roof.
The structural work began with the aim of first completing an enclosed, weatherproof building before fitting out the interior. Construction is now continuing at the Maurikstraat site, where the future centre will definitively replace the Moroccan community’s current premises.
