http://theislamicstandard.wordpress.com/2011/06/15/eco-friendly-masjid-planned-in-germany/

The Prophet Muhammad (saws) said "The world is beautiful and verdant, and verily God, be He exalted, has made you His stewards in it, and He sees how you acquit yourselves."
Recorded in Saheeh Muslim

Whilst the oil-cash crazy Gulf Sheikhs compete to build the world's tallest phallic substitute, a small Muslim community in Norderstedt, in northern Germany are showing the way with plans being submitted for an eco-friendly Masjid.

Noderstedt's Muslims are pioneering renewable energy sources by planning to build a Masjid which will not only be energy-efficient but with wind turbines built into the minarets.

The Mineret was traditionally the place the Muazzin would climb to call the faithful to prayer, though these days we make do with sound systems and speakers, especially with the noise of modern life making any traditional call inaudible.

But the �2.5m Masjid in Norderstedt, near Hamburg would see the traditional architectural feature have a new energy generating role with a wind-fuelled power source.

The plans are the work of the Hamburg architect Selcuk �nyilmaz, a Turkish Muslim who has long incorporated energy efficiency into his work. "I thought about how we could give sacral architecture an ecological focus," he said. "My design combines the modern with the traditional, so I wanted to give the minarets a contemporary function."

A pair 1.5m glass rotor blades, as seen on the latest eco-friendly offices are to be placed in both of the 22m high minarets though perhaps the energy producing measures will be reduced somewhat by the beams of light which will be projected onto the blades to produce light shows at certain times of the day.

The Turks, once the leaders of the Islamic world declined from the 17th Century onwards as their scholars misinterpreted Islamic prohibitions on 'Bidah' literally newly innovated matters to mean a prohibition on many forms of technology including the printing press, whilst at the same time allowing many innovations in belief and practice of Islam led to sharp decline.

Classically the word always meant newly innovated ways of worshipping with new technologies and sciences being welcomed in the Islamic world from the times of the early Muslims onwards and this misunderstanding.

This period of stagnation ended with the destruction of the Ottoman state in 1918 and the final vestiges of the Khilafah abolished in 1923 by the Secularist Kufr Government of Mustafa Kamel and his allies, one of the most notorious apostates in the history of Islam.

Now the 200-strong congregation, part of the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs, is building the new state of the art Masjid, after having made do with an old 100-year-old building which was difficult to modify into a place of worship

Despite some tensions between Muslims and the indigenous Germans, local authorities approved plans for the project, which will measure about 1,300 sq metres and comprise two parts, the mosque and a larger building containing shops meant to be used by the whole community, whether Muslim or not.

"We want to create a meeting place for people from all religions and nationalities," Ugur S�tc�, the chairman of the Norderstedt congregation, told the Hamburger Abendblatt newspaper. "There will be advisory services on offer, as well as social, cultural and sporting activities."

The Guardian reported that the The German design will not be the first of its kind, however, 'as the Islamic missionary group Tablighi Jamaat is also planning to build an environmentally friendly mosque with wind turbines in its minarets in time for the London 2012 Olympics.'

It also added 'The coastal town is perfectly situated for wind energy production, and the minarets will help cover the building's overheads, providing about a third of its energy.'

�nyilmaz told the press that was one of the reasons he opted for turbines instead of solar panels, which would not produce electricity at night. "We are in the north and I don't think there's a day here that isn't windy," he said.

As Muslims we are meant to do everything we do to the best of our ability, and Inshallaah this new Muslim will set a new standard in Islamic environmental activism as we are meant to be keepers of this world, as a trust from Allaah not just to feel free to use and abuse it thinking there are no consequences to such actions.

Corruption has appeared in the land and the sea on account of what the hands of men have wrought, that He may make them taste a part of that which they have done, so that they may return.
Quran Translation, Surah al Rum, 30:41