For the first time in 200 years, Muslims in Greece will now have a place where they can worship. The group has been fighting for a place to worship for over ten years, and the opening of a mosque in Athens was an important step for the Muslim community. While many are happy because of the opening, some are still worried about Greece’s treatment towards the Muslim community, and other religous groups are pushing back against the mosque opening.
Long Awaited Mosque Opens in Athens
After 14 years of waiting, the Muslim community will finally have a place to worship or pray, in Athens, Greece. There had been plans to build a mosque in Athens since 1890, but because other religious and political groups were against it, as well as the Greek government having money problems, a mosque was stopped from opening in Athens. Despite these issues, the mosque has now officially opened and Athens has the first government-funded mosque since 1833. A mosque is described as a house of prayer, it is like a church or synagogue. The mosque, which opened in November 2020, is only allowing a small number of worshipers who must wear masks and social distance because of an increase in the amount of COVID-19 cases in the country. With the rise of COVID-19 cases, Greece has gone into a lockdown or shutdown that stops all large gatherings from formal worship. As soon as the lockdown is over, people will be able to be back inside the mosque and worship safely.
“It is a historic moment for the Muslim community living in Athens, we have been waiting for this mosque for so long,” stated Heider Ashir, a member of the mosque’s governing council. “Thanks to God, finally, we have a mosque which is open and we can pray here freely.” While some in Athens’ Muslim community are exctied to have a place to worship, some people are not happy with how the mosque was designed and believe that the building does not look like how a mosque should traditionally look. Naim El Ghandour, the head of the Muslim Association of Greece stated “it does not at all look like a place of worship, it is a small, square, miserable building.” El Ghandour believes that a mosque should be a more decorated, beautiful building.
Muslims in Greece
There are around 1.9 billion Muslims living across the globe, and Islam is the second biggest religion in the world next to Christianity at number one. As of 2020, Muslims made up only about five percent of the total population of Greece. About 300,000 Muslims live in Athens. Before this new mosque opened in November 2020, Athens was the only major city in Europe without a mosque. The Muslim community struggled for many years just to get the Athens mosque to open.
Historically in Greece, the Muslim communty has not always been treated fairly. Greece was under the control of the Ottoman Empire, an empire founded in what today is Turkey, for hundreds of years. It wasn’t until 1829 when the Greeks were able to break free. When the Ottoman Empire ruled Greece, there were many mosques for the Muslim commuity to worship in, but after Greece was able to get their independence, anything that reminded the people of the Ottoman Empire, even the mosques, were destroyed or knocked down. With no mosques, there was no place for the Muslim community to worship.
While the Muslim community today is protected by certain laws, there have been times where these laws were not followed. For many Greek cities, it is pretty normal to not have a mosque. While the mosque in Athens was opened in 2020, another request for a mosque by the Muslim community in Greece’s second largest city, Thessaloniki, was not approved. The Muslims Education Culture Foundation which submitted the application believes that the Greek government is not doing enough to provide them with places to worship and pray.
The opening of the mosque in Athens is an important and hopeful step in making sure the Muslim community in Greece can practice their religion freely. Even with these steps, there still must be more progress made for Muslims in Greece.
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