Greece has just given the go ahead for the first Mosque.?

Question

It is the only country in Europe without a muslim place of worship. Do you admire them for that, or are you disgusted by it?

P.S. There are no muslim places of worship anywhere in Greece as of10:02 pm. on 27 th. July 2006. There may be buildings, but not places for muslims to legally worship.

Answer 1

Yes,Kimon is right,there are many Mosques in Thrace,Northern
Greece,next to Turkey,where many Muslim Greeks live.The problem was for Athens,where now it has soooo many foreigners,many of muslim religion (Pakistani,Afghani,Turks,
Palestinian,Egyptian etc.) who had no official place to pray.
They were gathering in big halls,who were turned into muslim religion places to satisfy their needs.
But now the government decided to build a mosque in the Botanikos area,so the start is being made.I m pretty sure more
mosques will follow.
I would also like to state two more things.Firstly,unfortunately the Greek Orthodox church is so conservative in many things,and
everybody knows that Greek youth has lost faith to it (not to
God -well,not everybody-,but to the church definitely).Everytime
someone tries to separate State from Church those stupid
conservative Christians hit the streets declaring against the "atheist Government" (for God's shake!).Our society,
especially in Athens and Thessaloniki has become multicultural
and hence multireligious and they need to finally understand that.
Secondly,I don't think that the muslim who live in Greece are
dangerous,as someone said,in relation to terrorism.For some
historical reason I m not sure of,Greece seems to have the
greatest tolerance among the West European countries for
the muslim people."Yunan" seems to be a magic word when you
are in danger in Middle East.I hope that this goes on and that
our governents will never attempt to involve in any war operations there.

Answer 2

You are wrong. There ARE mosques in Greece, but not in Athens. Athens until recently did not have a muslim population, that was the reason. The past few years many muslim immigrants came, and naturally they needed a mosque. No one has ever denied them this right, but all religious buildings need a permit. Bureaucracy is horrible in Greece, but this is not the only reason it hasn't been built yet. The problem is to find where it will be built. The same long debate has taken place about where to build the stadium of Panathinaikos, for example. You see, the mosque is regarded as a not-so-wanted amenity in most areas, because thn the area will be packed with immigrants from Asian countries. I am not being racist, I am just telling you how people think. Most would not like their neighbourhood full of people from Pakistan etc, because that image is not the image of the post-Olympic neat Athens we want to show to tourists and ourselves. We are very sympathetic to these people, because they are poor, work hard in Greece and don't cause any problems, and everyone agrees to have a mosque (including the church), but no one wnats it outside his door, it's not good decor, you know what I'm saying?

PS. To Ashley:
No mosque built as such was ever converted to a church. The churches that had been turned into mosques became churches again.

Answer 3

I'm pretty sure the article just said that there are no mosques in Athens. I think its because of the bad memories of occupation of the Ottoman Empire (yes, I know they achieved independence in the 1820's but Greeks never forget when they are slighted or put down) and the continuous bad relations with Turkey over Cyprus, etc. Many of the former mosques were turned back into churches and museums. I think its a good step forward for Greeks, especially because they have quite a large Albanian population. I think this display of acceptance and tolerance is a step in the healing process.

Answer 4

There are hundreds of mosques operating in Greece. In Komotini, where the grand mufti is, there are at least a dozen and in Xanthi a dozen more. All villages (with some exceptions) from river Nestos to river Evros have an operating mosque. In Thaki prefecture live some 400 000 Muslims (Turks, Pomaks and Gypsies), most of them in the rural areas. Recently there are going to restore the Grand mosque in Didimoticho (the first mosque build in Europe).

Answer 5

Well, there are hundreds of mosques in Greece! There are no in Athens and most places n the Central and South, though!
What I can not understand is how Greece allows Christians, Muslims, and all other religions and cults have their worship temples and places and does not allow to the ones of the Greek Religion!

Answer 6

I have queezie feelings.

Al Queda wants World Islam.

They talk of chopping off the head of the Infidel.

Jesus told his followers to spread the world to everyone that would listen, but if a door was slammed in your face, turn, brush the dust off your feet and keep walking. He didn't say slice their head off!

Mosques are being used to store weapons and hold meetings with people who are anti-anything that isn't Islam.

Part of me wants to be tolerant, but part of me says they aren't up to any good!

Maybe if I saw more Clerics get on TV and tell the World that these attacks are not Islam I'd feel better, but the fact is Ayatollahs and Clerics keep saying death to the JEws, Death to the Infidels

If the Pope or Billy Graham went around saying "Death to Heathens" and "World Christianity at the point of a gun" no one would trust them, either!

They just raided a Mosque out here in New York and took away several Clerics and locked them away or deported them.

Christians do have their own "Branch Dividian" cult followings, but we raid them too!

Answer 7

I hope the Muslim Turkey will stop presenting fashion in the
greatest SAINT SOPHIA church in Istanbul now

Answer 8

Good luck letting the Terrorist in......

Answer 9

no mosque....no mosque....I declare it