Muslim leaders in Greece believe that by ignoring their community’s deep grievances and long-standing marginalisation, the government is creating an explosive. The community’s disgruntlement includes the lack of mosques and cemeteries despite repeated promises by successive governments. Tens of thousands of Muslims are forced to pray in about 130 windowless, airless basements or warehouses that currently serve as makeshift mosques. Last year, the government finally unveiled a location for the first mosque in Athens, the European Union’s only capital without a Muslim place of worship. However, the construction has not started yet. Muslims from across the country also have to travel hundreds of kilometres to northern Greece for weddings, burials and other ceremonies. Muslims make about 1.3 per cent of the population in overwhelmingly Orthodox Christian Greece, according to the CIA Facts Book. Some 1000 Muslims took to the streets of Athens to protest the desecration of the Qur’ān by a policeman. Seven Muslims and seven policemen were injured in clashes while 46 protesters were arrested.
MUSLIMS MARGINALISED IN GREECE
Muslim leaders in Greece believe that by ignoring their community’s deep grievances and long-standing marginalisation, the government is creating an explosive.
