Greek Muslims seek government support to build mosque, burial ground

Athens, (IINA) -  Demanding their religious rights, Muslims in Greece have called on the government to approve and support the building of permanent places of worship and a burial ground for Muslims, according to media reports.
Muslims, whose number is estimated at about 300,000 in and around Athens, have no place of worship except converted garages or makeshift buildings, which can be demolished at any time. These places, as they are not officially recognized, have on several occasions posed danger to the lives of Muslims. Two years ago a petrol barrel set fire to a mosque in Athens, the inferno now turned the city as the only European capital without a single mosque."
“I can say prayers for people everywhere, in homes, in the mosque, on the road, but I cannot bury a dead Muslim just anywhere.”
“Of course, this is a difficult and expensive journey. Sending a body to Western Thrace, to the cemetery in Gümülcine, costs around 1,400 euros. In addition, most of the Muslims who live here are people who have fled war and don't have that kind of money. So mostly, we gather money amongst ourselves to help out. There's no other solution,” Imam Abdel Rahim Abdel-Sayed said on Tuesday.
Looking at the present increase in the rate of Islamophobia in the West, Muslims have been victims to a series of attacks as the basements garages used for prayers are illegal. This makes the citizens increase abuses on Muslims, endangering their lives and properties.
Golden Dawn (political party) has strictly objected to the construction of any mosque in Athens, a view that is also shared by the Greek Orthodox church.
In a report to the BBC, although the Greek church warmed to the mosque idea, some senior figures remain opposed. Immigrants who lost their lives in Greece are either taken home through the support of their embassies and donations from Muslim community members, but those from poor countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, Somalia and Syria, whose family could not afford the expense to have their deceased family members' bodies sent to Western Thrace after dying due to situations faced in their countries.
Muslims account for nearly 1.3 percent of Greece’s 10.7 million population. Greek Muslims have long called for building a grand mosque in Athens to accommodate the religious needs of the growing Muslim minority.
Despite objections from its powerful Orthodox Church, Greece had pledged to build a mosque in Athens. But the crunching economic crisis, coupled with public enmity associating mosques with the Ottoman presence, has prevented the pledge from being translated into action.
About 130 windowless, airless basements or warehouses in Athens currently serve as mosques for an estimated 200,000 Muslims in the Greek capital.
Tens of thousands of Muslim immigrants perform prayers in private homes and have had to travel hundreds of kilometers to northern Greece for weddings, burials and other ceremonies.
SM/IINA

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