Religious Security: Extreme Mosque Edition…

Given the tensions in the world today, we probably shouldn’t be surprised, but still…

Religious buildings and places used to be welcoming places, often open all night or as close to it as local ordinances and capacity would allow. Now, we don’t know much about mosques, but the picture below (click on it for full size – it’s huge) spurred some thought.

According to the e-mail, it’s a rather new mosque located in Norway’s capital Oslo, and is the Bait-un-Nasr mosque, home to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat in Oslo. The place has room for 5000 worshippers, divided into one male hall and one for females.

At first glance, this seems like a pretty standard mosque, though on the larger side. What and observant fellow has seen, however, is far from standard when it comes to religious buildings.

– Around the perimeter, there’s a 6 foot plus high fence, of the same type that many US embassies around the world use to safeguard their compounds.

– Windows facing the highway (we don’t know about the others) look like they’re both one-way and reinforces, either shatter resistant or even heavier.

– In this shot alone, there are 6 CCTV cameras, at least 2 of them are “PTZ” domes. The rest of them are newer model HD cameras, according to the e-mail, and will probably have low-light or IR capabilities. Note that there are cameras on the other side of the building too, but we don’t have any pics of those. Yet.

– On the left side of the compound, looking at it from the above POV, there’s a motorized gate, what looks like a guard house, and the building is set about 50 yards back from the road, just like a well guarded foreign embassy would be…

– Flood lights surround the compound and the buildings there, apparently capable of lighting the place up like a Christmas tree… pardon the pun.

If anyone have shots of other high-sec religious buildings (whatever the religion), we’d be very interested to see them. Any more shots of this “fortress of Islam” would also be fun, of course.