After the Indonesian independence in 1945, there was a growing idea to build a national mosque for the new republic, which has been the largest Muslim population in the world since 1971. The idea of constructing a grand Indonesian national mosque was launched by Wahid Hasyim, Indonesia's first minister for religions affairs, and Anwar Cokroaminoto, later appointed as the chairman of the Masjid Istiqlal Foundation. The committee for the construction of the Istiqlal Mosque, led by Cokroaminoto, was founded in 1953. He proposed the idea of a national mosque to Indonesian President Sukarno, who welcomed the idea and later helped to supervise the mosque's construction. In 1954 the committee appointed Sukarno technical chief supervisor.