Exclusive interview: My experience as a Pakistani in Greece

Many of us living outside of Greece, including me, wonder what the treatment of Muslims are living Greece by the locals.  Here’s an enlightening interview by Br. Nabeel, a Pakistani brother living in Athens, Greece.

Q.  What’s your experience living as a Muslim in Greece?

Well, I am here in Greece from last 3 years.  As a Muslim I felt a lot of change in myself when I came here to Greece .  First thing which happened to me I was at work. The boss brought something for me to eat.  I asked him, what is that? He replied “Kotopolo” meaning chicken. The first question rose in my mind, is it halal? (In Pakistan I never faced that kind of stitution like halal or haram). Any how I said to him I will not eat, cause I am Muslim. He said if you are in Pakistan you can do as a Muslim but now you are in Greece so you should do as Christians. I wasn’t good in Greek at that time. Even didn’t know at all. So I couldn’t reply. I wasn’t a good Muslim before, but I started thinking about what makes a difference between me as a Muslim and others. And really I felt a change in me as time passed.

Q. Where do people pray in Athens? 

There are about 50000 Pakistanis here in Greece and about 99 % are Muslims.  Here there are no proper mosques. Just Jaey Namaz or places for prayer. To whom we call as mosques. People have halls and houses on rent and declared them as mosques. These masjids are about 30 in Athens. Mostly have Pakistanis and Bengalis. But some of them are Arabs and of Egyptians.

Q. How are Muslims treated by the locals? 

Here mostly Greeks think about foreigners as 3^rd class citizen. If any Pakistani, Bengali or Arab has any shop, they will not go there to buy any thing. But for work they prefer foreigners rather then Greeks.  

If there is a Muslim, meaning a good Muslim have beard etc. they respect him. That is why I feel good. Because in Pakistan I observed that, everyone who has beard, everyone sees him as suspicious person. But it is not here.  Yes here sometime people call the person who has beard Taliban or Bin laden. But it is not with hate or something.  Everyone assk why you have beard - are you a Papa? (papa is you know Imam or religious leader)

 Q.  What’s the status of the mosque being built in Athens? 

What we Muslims need here in Greece is a proper network of availability of halal meat and one or more proper mosques, especially in Athens .  Govt. had a promise to build a mosque in Central Athens (Near Mushtraqi) within 3 years. 1 year has been passed lets see what will happen next.

Want to learn more about the building of the mosque in Athens? Visit MSNBC News report.