Athens Muslims Dream of City's First Mosque

[sonz]

ATHENS, March 3, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The Muslim minority in Athens has long waited for the city's first mosque to see the light but the dream never comes true over opposition from the powerful Orthodox Church and the public.

Plans have been set long time ago to set up a mosque for the estimated 150,000 Muslims in the capital Athens. But the plans have been held up over the opposition from the Orthodox Church and the public, Reuters reported Friday, March 3.

Studded with minarets two centuries ago, Athens has not had a functioning mosque since the end of Ottoman rule in the early 1800s.

The only working mosques are located near the Turkish border in the northern Greek prefecture of Xanthi, home to a Muslim minority of some 120,000.

Although the steady immigration of Muslims to Athens continues -- mostly economic migrants from the Middle East and Asia -- the city remains the only capital in western Europe without a Muslim worship place.

In 1979, government plans have been drawn up to establish a mosque and an adjoining Islamic cultural center, with funding pledged by Saudi Arabia.

But opposition from the Greek Orthodox Church, coupled with resentment over the 400-year-long Ottoman rule and past rivalries with mainly Muslim Turkey, have created reservation among the Greeks, putting the plans on hold.

Never Began

The plans seemed close to seeing light when the capital Athens hosted the 2004 Olympic Games.

At that time, the Greek authorities promised a mosque and an Islamic center for Muslim athletes.

A site was chosen 35 km (21 miles) outside the city after the Orthodox Church expressed displeasure over the prospect of a minaret rising on the Athens skyline.

But the construction in the town of Paiania, near the international airport, never began.

Muslims say Paiania is too far away for the minority, which is mainly based in central Athens, but their options are limited.

"It's far from the center (of Athens), but it's better than nothing," Tahir Ali Shah, a Muslim Pakistani doctor, told Reuters.

The Muslim minority in Athens are currently performing their prayers in makeshift mosques, estimated at about 130 places which are windowless, airless basements or rooms in warehouses.

"On Friday, many people come here for prayer, it's a very old and congested place. We are afraid a slab is going to fall on us, and it's raining (inside)," said Monjur Moshed, an immigrant from Bangladesh who was in a small and decrepit apartment in central Athens.

Opposition

Muslims say holidays and funerals pose the most problems as thousands of people spill out onto the city's streets, a sight they fear will create resentment among neighbors.

"As people gather here, at some point they end up outside in the street to hold religious festivals. I believe surely in this environment there could be a problem with the community," Shah said.

However, the Greek people, especially residents of Paiania where the mosque is planned to set up, are still angry at the plans to establish the Muslim worship place.

Paiania Mayor Paraskevas Papakostopoulos said residents are angry that the mosque site is on a hill, meaning the mosque will be visible from far and seen by visitors flying into the airport.

"It spoils the religious and cultural character of our region, as well as all of Greece," he claimed.

"It's not pleasant to enter a country and the first thing you see is a mosque."

He also said that residents also did not want thousands of worshippers congregating in their town.

"Our residents look at it as a foreign object in their area, that is being forced on them without anyone asking their opinion," he said.

The Orthodox Church, which had long opposed the mosque, has recently softened its stance. However, the Church still opposes the construction of the cultural center.

"The Church of Greece does not find this center necessary for the worship needs of the Muslim community in Athens, it thinks that it may operate, as European experience has shown, as a hotbed of extreme fundamentalist views," claimed Haris Konidaris, spokesman for the Orthodox Church of Greece.

Greece has not experienced terrorist attacks in years. The country's worst foreign attack was in 1988 when nine people were killed and about 80 injured on a cruise ship near Athens by Arab guerrillas.

[Ghazi]

Salaam

Wouln't they have to make hijra