Passive Defense Considerations in Site Selection of Religious Centers (Mosques)

Mosques are usually considered not only the spiritual and worship places and the ones used for approaching towards God, but they have also played more important roles in establishing, educating and strengthening social assets (public unity and solidarity), as popular bases. Furthermore they are considered as a deterring element against enemies to achieve their goals and a strong front and a hardened castle to fight against enemies goals. In this regard the Almighty God in Verse 97 of Maedeh Chapter of the Holy Quran has selected Mecca as the uprising place for people and has introduced it as a base for people and the guidance of the whole world. This has caused the enemies and the arrogant oppressors to attempt to counter this awakening base and the Islamic symbol.In this study, in regard to a variety of public criteria and the necessity of considering the passive defense criteria for the appropriate selection and site surveying of this strategic place, great effort has been taken, based on the present choices, to maintain the central role of mosques in the unity of the society and at the same time, the Islamic-Iranian architectural necessities be taken into consideration simultaneous with defensive site selection so that we can contribute better and more to the strengthening of the deterrence condition and the social unity of the religious centers.This essay proposes a general trend along with the criteria of site selection and weighing them with passive defense approaches to select a site for an important mosque of each city using library research and making use of integrated solutions.