What is the ruling on praying in mosques where pictures are hung?

The questioner : Currently, in a mosque in Gaza, they hang pictures on the walls of certain personalities or of the Intifada or something, and magazines. So some people say that praying in a mosque that has pictures in it is not permissible, because 'Umar ibn al-Khattab did not pray in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. What is your opinion on this?

The Shaykh : Yes, this is what those who have been afflicted, and whom you have been afflicted with, do, namely those who call themselves the Muslim Brothers, because they do not understand from their Islam anything but appearances and slogans that contain no nourishment. As for saying that prayer in a mosque that has pictures in it is not valid, this requires a piece of evidence from the Shari'ah so that we may submit our minds and our belief to it, and there is no such thing. But there is no doubt and no ambiguity that it is not permissible to bring pictures into the mosques in which Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is worshipped. But the whole matter is that we cannot say that the prayer in this mosque is not valid, like the prayer in a mosque that has a grave or graves, because there are many texts and similar hadiths. As for saying that if a place or a mosque has a picture in it, the prayer in it is not valid, there is no evidence for that. Therefore, the people of the mosque should cooperate with one another and not allow any picture to be hung in the mosque. Rather, even in a house, if the residents are a group of them who worship Allah with the true Islam, it should be that every means is taken so that no picture is hung in that house, let alone in a house of Allah (Mighty and Majestic). If pictures are not permissible in the houses of people, then they are even less permissible in the houses of Allah (Mighty and Majestic). But that the prayer in that house or in that mosque is not valid, this requires evidence, and there is no clear evidence?

The questioner : Clear.

The Shaykh : Then I will add to the explanation by saying: if you have an eastern mosque and a western mosque, one of which has pictures and the other does not, then you must choose the one that does not have pictures, in order to stay away from the mosque that has pictures. But if you are not between two mosques where you can choose the one that is less in violation of the Shari'ah, then there is no sin on you and no dislike in praying in that mosque. But if you have a word, and if you are able to give advice to those young men who have gotten involved in placing such pictures, it is obligatory for you to do so, in obedience to enjoining good and forbidding evil.