27 minutes agoAfter decades of waiting, Muslims in Athens do mosques
Periskopi(7 years ago)
(7 years ago)Without minarets or domes, beige, rectangular structures in an old industrial area have none of the typical ash of Islamic places of worship. But for Muslims in Athens, it is the result of a long battle and the city's first official mosque in more than 180 years. Greek authorities [...]
Greek authorities said on Friday that Athens will open its first official mosque, probably by September, when the 850,000-euro construction project ($ 967,000) will end Reuters.
Although there are mosques in other parts of Greece, the capital has not had a formal mosque since it conquered the Ottomans in 1833, and some remaining ones have been rebuilt.
The first prayers will soon be made by imam. We hope it can happen by September,” Education Minister Costas Gavroglou told reporters.
Stumbled by bureaucracy, a financial crisis, an Orthodox population and opposition, largely dominant by the rise of the country's extreme right, obtaining approval for mosques took years, forcing Muslims to pray in improvised places covered throughout the city, starting with those packed with basements or dark warehouses.
This is like a dream,” said Asir Haider, a spokesman for the Muslim Shiite community in Athens.
More than 200,000 Muslims from countries, including Pakistan, Syria, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, live in the Greek capital, according to Muslim groups. Greece has its Muslim community, which represents about 2% of the population living mainly in the north, where they have their own mosques.
Efforts over the years to build a mosque in Athens sparked protests by small groups at the extreme right; a short distance from the mosque -- short-cut graphite on a wall -- read “Islam Out”.
Mohammad Irfan, who represents a group of Muslim communities in the nearby town of Megara, said the view was not everything. It doesn't look like a glass. But what's important is there's a place for us to pray,” he told Reuters. /BalkanWeb
