Athens Set to Build its First Mosque – but Where?

But it has only been with the approach of the 2004 Summer Olympic Games, to be hosted by the Greek capital, that the idea has moved to the top of the agenda.

Although the sites for the Games will have their own worship facilities for different religions, the government would certainly like to boost its credentials with Muslim countries by opening the mosque while the world spotlight is on Athens.

The promoters of the project, which is being funded by Saudi Arabia, are therefore hoping that the Games will provided the needed impetus to get the building up, but the mayor of the suburb selected has in effect declared that he doesn’t want it in his backyard.

In 2000, with Athens already selected for the Games, the then-Socialist government announced that it had granted a large plot of land in the suburban town of Paiania, some 20 kilometres (12 miles) north of the city centre and near to Athens’ international airport, for the project.

At that time the mayor of Paiania, close to the Socialists, accepted the plan, but his conservative successor Paraskevas Papakostopoulos, elected last year, has said the choice of his town was "arbitrary," and got the local council to reject it.

"We aren’t against the building of an Islamic centre in Athens, but the choice made by the authorities does not help Muslims who live far away from Paiania," he said.

"The centre should be built in the western suburbs, where most of the Muslim immigrants live," he added.

More controversially, the mayor cited the location of the proposed mosque, close to the main Athens airport, as an argument against the plan.

This would "give visitors the impression they were arriving in an Islamic country," he complained.

Greece’s Christian Orthodox Church — which claims the allegiance of some 97 percent of the population, and is explicitly mentioned in the constitution as the "dominant religion" — has so far kept a low profile, saying the dispute concerns only the government and local authorities.

However it has come out against the building of an Islamic cultural centre, as opposed to a mosque, in the capital.

A cultural centre would "serve other aims" than a mosque, an ecclesiastical source said, apparently reflecting fears of political agitation by Muslims.

Meanwhile the foreign ministry, which has made the mosque project its own, has said it will override any objections by the local council in Paiania.

"Our political will is to push ahead with this project, and we are soon going to adopt a law on the centre’s statutes," a diplomatic source said.

The Saudi embassy said that it considered Paiania an appropriate location, on account of its good road and rail links with the rest of the Athens region.

However Dimitris Levantis, the head of a local anti-racist group, said the quarrel had little relevance for most Muslims, and was mainly being used as a football in Greece’s political relations with Arab states.

"The problem would be solved if each (Muslim) community was allowed to build its own mosque in its neighbourhood," he said.

In the meantime, the city’s Muslims continue to make do with informal places of worship in homes and local meeting halls.