Votanikos Mosque

The Votanikos Mosque or Athens New Mosque (Greek: Τζαμί της Αθήνας, translit. Tzami tis Athinas, lit. 'Athens Mosque') is a mosque project for the Votanikos neighbourhood of Athens. When finished in April 2017, it will be the first purpose-built mosque in the Greek capital since the Greek War of Independence. There are already mosques from Ottoman times in Athens like the Tzistarakis Mosque and the Fethiye Mosque but they function as archaeological monuments nowadays. The project has been repeatedly delayed because of the opposition from the powerful Greek Orthodox Church and - in recent times - civil protests.

The first law passed by the Greek Parliament about constructing a ″Turkish mosque″ in the Athens area was in 1890. In 1970, conservative Arab countries offered the funding of a mosque in Athens but neither the law nor the proposal were realized. Increased immigration from Muslim countries in recent decades has made the establishment more urgent—about 200,000 Muslims live in the Athens area, many of whom are Pakistani and Albanians—but until recently no official mosque building.

The first attempt to establish a mosque in Athens dates to Law 2833 in 2000, which envisaged its establishment at Hourmouza in Paiania, and was intended to be financed by Saudi Arabia. Due to the reaction of the Church and the locals, the project stalled. In 2006, the effort was resumed with Law 3512, but with major modifications: it was decided that the construction would be financed solely by the Greek state, which would retain complete control over the mosque and appoint its imam. The project was repeatedly delayed due to judicial actions by various groups, which went all the way to the Council of State, and the fact that four successive public tenders received no interest from contractors.

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Wikipedia