Athens' first mosque to be opened for worship in two to three years

Oct 6, 2006, 13:41 GMT

Athens - Athens' first mosque since Turkish rule under the Ottoman Empire will be opened to Muslims living in the city within two to three years, the Greek Education Minister Marietta Giannkou said Friday.

'The mosque should be inaugurated in two to three years and will stand under the jurisdiction of the Education Ministry,' Giannkou told journalists during a press conference, adding that it will cost the Greek state 15 million euros to construct the building.

Hundreds of thousands of Muslims have immigrated to Athens in recent years. Athens is the only capital in the European Union without a mosque for its Muslim population.

While freedom of worship is guaranteed by Greece's constitution, the building of mosques has been controversial. Objections from the country's powerful Orthodox Church delayed plans for the mosque's construction. Some 96 per cent of the Greek population is Greek Orthodox.

The mosque will be located in the downtown area of Votanikos, an area in the city where many of the immigrants from Asia live.

Earlier proposals included a site near the airport, some 33 kilometres from the city and the reopening of an 18th century mosque beneath the Acropolis which has since been turned into a museum.

The Socialist party, which governed the country prior to the Olympics, had decided on the site near the airport, where a Saudi- sponsored mosque and Islamic cultural centre were to be build.

The Orthodox Church and local residents of the firmly conservative town of Peania, however, rejected these plans, saying that a minaret visible from the airport would define Greece as a Muslim country to foreign visitors.

The Greek Education Minister on Friday ruled out plans for the construction of an Islamic cultural centre to accompany the mosque.