Fri 06 November 2020:
The first Friday prayer was held in the only mosque in Athens amid social distancing due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The decision to build a mosque in Athens was first made in 2006, with a budget of €887,000 ($1.04 million), but bureaucratic hurdles, protests by far-right groups, and legal challenges stalled the process. Parliament eventually approved its construction in August 2016.
The mosque, constructed in a mainly industrial area of the capital, will now provide an official place of worship for Athens’ Muslim community.
Members of the Muslim community said the new mosque, while far from perfect, was at least a start.
“All this time we have been praying underground. This is a great day for us,” said Anna Stamou, a representative of the Muslim Association of Greece. She said the mosque had “many disadvantages and issues that have to be solved,” including a small capacity, “but this is a very solid start.”
Stamou put Athens’ Muslim population at around half a million people, and noted that the new mosque’s capacity, at 300 men and 50 women, was too small.
“But this is like a symbolic foundation and establishment that is an official one,” Stamou said. It will not provide the services for everybody, we already know that. But this is a good start.”
Further restrictions on the number of people allowed in all places of worship in Greece currently apply due to the coronavirus pandemic. As of Saturday morning, lockdown-type measures are being imposed nationwide, which will mean places of worship, including churches and mosques, can only hold services without the presence of the faithful.
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