Turkey’s president builds mosque larger than those of sultans

(The Christian Science Monitor) “This isn’t being built for the people who live here,” said Ethem Özdemir, as he considered the enormous concrete dome gradually rising beyond his home.

His neighborhood lies on Istanbul’s Çamlıca Hill, a spot so favored that the Ottoman sultans who once ruled the city built pavilions there to enjoy the breathtaking view it commands of the Bosphorus strait.

Now Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is crowning Çamlıca with a mosque larger than anything built by the sultans: it will have a capacity for 37,500 people and is costing some $45 million.