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.
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.