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| Europe | |
| France makes way for grand mosque | |
| 2010-05-21 | |
| MARSEILLE: French Muslims celebrated on Thursday as construction work began on the country's biggest mosque in the southern port city of Marseille, a potent symbol of Islam's place in modern France. Muslim and government leaders alike hope that work on the Grande Mosque will serve to bind the city together and serve as a community anchor. Marseille is France's second largest city and home to 250,000 Muslims, many of whom are currently obliged to perform their rites in makeshift prayer houses. With a minaret soaring 25 metres high, the Grand Mosque will hold up to 7,000 people in its prayer room and the complex will also boast a Quranic school, library, restaurant and tea room when it opens in 2012. Muslims in Marseille have long campaigned for a mega-mosque as a prominent gathering place for Muslims. The turning point came in 2001 when Mayor Jean-Claude Gaudin, a member of Sarkozy's right-wing party, threw his weight behind the project, overriding objections from the far-right. After years of delays, the project still faces hurdles to raise the full $27 million needed to finance it. Nourredine Cheikh, an Algerian-born businessman and president of the association leading the campaign for the mosque, said his group was hoping for big donations from North African countries, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia.
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| Posted by:Steve White |
| #1 I once visited Marseille while still on active duty; the only memory i have of the place is that of the over-powering smell of dogcrap; seemed that it was required for Fido to poop on the sidewalk and his master NOT clean it up. That and the mosque will fit nicely together. |
| Posted by: USN, Ret. 2010-05-21 14:27 |