Muslims in Iceland are set to begin building the country’s first ever mosque next week in the city of Reykjavik, after the City Council granted a plot for the project last year. Muslim Association of Iceland chairman Ibrahim Sverrir Agnarsson said that they are in the final stages of commencing the mosque for the island’s 1,200 Muslims in a joint project with the Islamic Cultural Centre of Iceland. A prayer hall, a community center, a library, and a 30-foot-high minaret will be included in the mosque, which is expected to cost $3.3 million to complete.
However, some have already expressed their opposition to the 8,600-square-foot mosque, with one Facebook group called Stop the Islamisation of Iceland already calling for the project to be halted. Last fall, three pigs heads and the bloodied pages of the Qur’ān were dumped on the plot where the mosque is to be built.