I’m not trying to be disrespectful to mosques in any way, and yes, I know they’re not allowed to use pictures so they resort to geometrical patterns. But still, when I look at images like this, something just feels ‘off’ – much like it does when you look at a haunted house. It just feels sort of otherworldly and unsettling to me. And the feeling is baked in to the visuals. It does not feel like it comes from a human world.
The same goes for something like this tbh:
Especially if I encountered it outside a church, it would really creep me out. It feels like it wants to bite me.
Isn’t “otherworldly” specifically the vibe they are going for? They are basically trying to make this portal to this other, heavenly world I always thought.
You can say a lot of negative things about these religious institutions, but they definitely have a good marketing department.
Isn’t “otherworldly” specifically the vibe they are going for? They are basically trying to make this portal to this other, heavenly world I always thought.
Not really. Some mosques incorporate imagery inspired by Quranic verses describing landscapes or scenery from heaven, but Islamic heaven is just gardens, rivers of honey, milk and wine, grand white or gold buildings and castles. So a mosque which incorporates them would look more natural and less “intimidating”, nothing like the one in the picture. A mosque which fits that description is the Umayyad mosque.
Mosques are decorated this way most of the time because they’re “houses of God”. So they nearly always incorporate Quranic verses and names of God in specific calligraphy styles of Arabic, use “preferred colors” of Islam: white, black, green, red, dark blue, dark brown, and look luxurious and abstract.
A lot of mosques aren’t that glittery. There are different styles to building mosques; I found the Blue Mosque in Istanbul to feel somewhat like a cathedral, but lighter and with patterns instead of iconography. The only mosque I’ve been in that felt off was the Hagia Sophia, and that is because it was converted from an Orthodox cathedral so it feels different.
I’ve also been to an Art Deco cathedral in Brussels that felt off too. It is the only Art Deco cathedral I’ve been to, which makes sense given what was generally built with Art Deco. Also, the modern Basilica de Guadalupe in Mexico City feels like a Catholic Space Mountain given that the style of architecture used for the basilica was heavily used in Disney’s Tomorrowland.
I think that, for you, maybe a lot of it is that you’re seeing some places of worship in a vastly different architectural style that you’re used to. The combination of grandeur and out of context architectural presentation makes the place feel alien.
A lot of mosques aren’t that glittery. There are different styles to building mosques
This. I feel like OP encountered one example of a very ornate mosque and is generalizing the rest of them based on that. I know the ones near me are a lot more plain.
By example, compare the architecture of small community christian churches to grand cathedrals in Europe. You’ll find similar extravagance, yet it would be weird to ask why all churches are so ornate just based on those examples.
I love the second example. The Catholic Church needed so much money to build the place that it caused a religious schism.
Not being allowed to put actual pictures in them. So they went all out with architecture,
something just feels ’off’
Sounds like very personal subjective experiences. I think your question makes more sense asking why do Mosques make you have such feelings. Personally, I don’t experience the same feelings when I look at the pictures you posted. I’ve never been inside a mosque so I don’t know what that would be like in person.
I’ve read that most religious buildings are designed inside to give you feelings like grandeur and solemnity and use cultural cues to do that. Culture cues certainly will differ across cultures. So maybe it’s just that.
Fantasy often feels that way.
