Noon prayers at Tokyo Camii, also known as Tokyo Mosque, began peacefully with Imam Ensari Yenturk reciting verses from the Quran, while worshippers, who included a middle-aged Japanese man, bowed and offered prayers toward Mecca.
The Tokyo Camii & Turkish Culture Center in Shibuya Ward, notable for its Ottoman architecture and intricate Arabic reliefs, is one of the mosques located across the nation that serve a small but thriving Muslim community estimated to number around 110,000 to 120,000, including roughly 10,000 Japanese Muslims.
The Islamic community was recently offended by leaked counterterrorism files that revealed police have been identifying Muslim residents as "terrorist suspects," an embarrassing incident that coincided with a heightened police alert for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum that wraps up Sunday in Yokohama.