The Olympics in Greece: Minus a minaret

Date: 22/11/03

Plans to build a mosque in Athens are in disarray

FOR all the rush to complete the construction of stadiums and media villages in time for the Olympics next summer, one building most athletes and spectators might take for granted is still missing. Embarrassingly, Athens lacks an official place of worship for Muslims.

Archbishop Christodoulos, head of the Greek Orthodox church, to which 98% of the population belongs, is partly to blame. He opposes the government's plans to build an Islamic cultural centre, including a large mosque, in Peania, a small town close to Athens's airport. One reason, say churchmen, is that a minaret on the skyline might mislead first-time visitors.

The Peania centre would be financed by the Saudi government. Its imam would be a senior Islamic scholar, drawn from Cairo's al-Azhar university. But, as an Athens-based organisation, it would be overseen by Greek officials, which would make it easier for the government to clamp down if militants (or terrorists) were to muscle in.

Local residents who back the archbishop have erected a cross at the highest point of the proposed site for the mosque. The mayor says the area belongs to the municipality, not the state, and should be sold to build homes. He is threatening to press his claim in court.

The capital's Muslims, who number over 100,000, now worship in warehouses and apartments in the city centre. About 30 informal mosques open for Friday prayers conducted by imams of various nationalities. Most worshippers are immigrants, from Nigerian street traders to Bangladeshi clothworkers.

Time is running short for the government. It has promised the International Olympic Committee that a proper mosque will be available in Athens before August 13th, the opening day of the games. One suggestion is that it should restore the 15th-century Fethiye mosque, one of only two in Athens to survive the past Greek practice of demolishing most Ottoman Turkish monuments. But refurbishing the building would take longer than a few months. And it would be too small to accommodate both locals and Olympic visitors.

The quick-fix solution now being considered is to transform a derelict factory in Votanikos, a scruffy central Athens district with lots of Muslim residents, into a temporary mosque. But outsiders might find it hard to locate. And it would hardly fulfil the government's promise of a proper mosque.

Plans to build a mosque in Athens are in disarray.