Athen’s first mosque in 200 years opens for Friday prayers

The first government-funded mosque in the Greek capital, Athens, has opened after 14 years of wrangling and bureaucratic delays.

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Hundreds of thousands of Muslims from different countries live in Athens but the city has not had a formal mosque since the Ottomans were forced to leave nearly 200 years ago.

Plans to construct a mosque in Athens began in 1890 yet it took decades for them to materialise due to opposition from a predominantly Christian Orthodox population and nationalists, sluggish bureaucracy but most recently a decade-long financial crisis.

Amid a coronavirus outbreak, only a limited number of worshippers, wearing masks and sitting at a distance from each other due to COVID-19 restrictions, attended prayers.

“It is a historic moment for the Muslim community living in Athens, we have been waiting for this mosque for so long,” said Heider Ashir, a member of the mosque’s governing council. “Thanks to God, finally, we have a mosque that is open and we can pray here freely.”

But other Muslims were unhappy with the mosque’s appearance. A grey, rectangular structure with no dome or minaret, has no resemblance to other graceful, ornate mosques in Europe.

“It does not at all look like a place of worship, it is a small, square, miserable building,” said Naim El Ghandour, head of the Muslim Association of Greece. “We thank them very much for the offer, but we will fight to reach it to the level that we deserve.”