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Europe
Athens to Begin Building First Mosque after Years of Delay
2013-11-15
[An Nahar] Work is finally set to begin on Athens' first mosque, 13 years after plans were first announced, the Greek government announced on Thursday. A Greek consortium has been chosen, the infrastructure ministry said, after five previous attempts to find a business group to lead the project failed.

Athens is one of the few European capitals without a mosque.

The building will have a budget of 946,000 euros ($1.3 million) and will be 600 square meters. It is being built on land formerly used by the military but it will not have a minaret. The project will have to be completed within six months of contracts being signed, said the ministry.

The scheme has been beset by various delays. It was first announced in 2000, ahead of the Olympics in Athens in 2004.

However,
the hip bone's connected to the leg bone...
it has long been opposed by the powerful Greek Orthodox Church. Some 90 percent of Greeks consider themselves Christian.

Although this is the first official mosque, several non-official places of worship have appeared in the Greek capital, thanks to an increasing number of immigrants from countries such as Pakistain.

In 2011, the Greek government was forced to adopt a law ensuring the construction of the mosque, with the first contract tender to be launched in the summer of 2013.

However,
the hip bone's connected to the leg bone...
it took five attempts to award a contract because of concerns over where to place the mosque and protests from those on the extreme right, such as supporters of Golden Dawn.

The only official mosques to be found in Greece are situated in the north east region of Thrace, where a minority group of Mohammedan Turks live.
Posted by:Fred

#5  "And they can store the explosives on the Acropolis again"
expect the same results with less to put back together
Posted by: Kofi Tojo8232   2013-11-15 20:19  

#4  And they can store the explosives on the Acropolis.
Posted by: swksvolFF   2013-11-15 14:39  

#3  Well, look on the bright side. It will be a concentrator of sorts.
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2013-11-15 13:55  

#2  ...Isn't there a limit on the number of civilizational collapses that are allowed per country..?
Posted by: Uncle Phester   2013-11-15 12:55  

#1  Greece, having solved all of their other problems, introduce a new one...
Posted by: Raj   2013-11-15 00:28  

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