Greece: the Church, the Mosque and the lost vote
February 10, 2010 by ImanK
Source: Enet.gr
By Thomas Tsatsis
© Translated by the Muslim Association of Greece
Ten years ago, when the issue of the identity cards and the indication of the religion was hot, the former bishop of Alexandroupolis – Anthimos was supporting the position of the official Church in an…unorthodox way.
Referring to a fact that was never clarified if it had a real existence, the bishop was saying that about 70 Muslims that were living in the wider region of Alexandroupolis had asked a “voting paper” to sign their claim to mention religion on the ID cards.
This is the same bishop that gave a battle after – out of solidarity – against the Muslim mosque at Peania, as was ordered by the law that was voted by the parliament.
And now he starts a new battle against the law that gives Hellenic nationality to the immigrants who many of them are Muslims. With a simple argument: “The Church was not asked about that. You can’t bring 700 thousands Muslims in the country and make them Greeks without even asking the Church.”
The Thessaloniki bishop (Anthimos), whatever they charge on him, one must admit that he knows about politics. The governments many times are acting according to the perception of the “lost vote” from the “side-church” that prevails inside the hierarchy. That means that the bishop will shout from the pulpit, the Christian crowd will be terrified, the MPs will feel pressures and they will transfer this to their parties to convey the message.
Thus with the populism of the opposition party and with the fear of the vote that can be lost, the government goes backwards and turns 180 degrees. The issue of the identity cards confirms the above. There were only two or three MPs and ministers of PASOK during 2000-2004 that defended the omitting of the religion from the identity cards publically. The rest had disappeared in order not to be indicated as opponents of the Church.
Four years now the governments do not take over the political cost of the construction of the Mosque at Eleonas as mentions the law of New Democracy government of 2006. But they are also scared to proceed to the construction of the Muslim cemetery in a field that the Church has bestowed! Yes, of the Church!
The government has not many choices. Either they will proceed immediately and solve the problem of the thousands of immigrants – and not only – Muslims that live in Attica and will confront a part of hierarchy in front and behind stage, or they will confront issues that cannot solve.
The scattered mosques-warehouses that are more than 100 in Attica are not under any control. Whatever is heard by “imams” that are self-announced small “prophets” many times are dangerous and cannot be confronted by the police. The legitimacy, the operation of one or more mosques with rules and conditions, official, with moderate imams and not with competing “Mujahidins”, can be a start.
Unless the government is waiting to finish first with the law for the immigrants and after that to take counsel with the Church. And just the day before yesterday the Hoy Synod stated that they believe that the law for the nationalities does not coincide totally with the immigration problem and that the government should consider the opinions of the bishops.
Bishops that “on one hand they preserve the teachings of Christ for love to everyone, on the other hand they do not know the partial national and social sensitivities, thus their opinions should be co-calculated to face such crucial matters.” This is the Holy Synod whose president is Archbishop Ieronymos.
As far as the identity card issue is concerned, Anthimos was right. There has been a research by Lina Molokotos-Liederman and the results were published in June 2007 at a journal article with the title “Looking at religion and Greek identity from the outside: The identity cards conflict through the eyes of the Greek minorities”. The conclusion of the article is:
“The somewhat supportive stance on the inclusion of religious affiliation on ID cards by the Turkish minority in Greece seems to weaken the argument that the inclusion of religious affiliation on ID cards increases the risk of discrimination for religious minorities in Greece. In the Turkish/Muslim case the issue is about positive, rather than negative, discrimination towards an officially recognised minority. It is therefore
more accurate to say that only some, but not all, Greek minorities are in favour of removing religion from ID cards. The specificity of the Turkish minority in Greece on the ID cards issue also challenges an implicit assumption shared by other Greek religious minorities, namely that religious affiliation (particularly, affiliation to a minority faith within an Orthodox majority) must remain a private issue and thus does not belong on official documents. In broader terms, a key issue is that the public expression of religious affiliation by a minority faith, which is considered a private matter by a majority, seems to be a point of debate both in Greece and in the broader European context, particularly with the development and increased visibility of Islam in Europe.”
Therefore it is true that some Muslims in Thrace wanted their religious affiliation to be written on their identity cards. And Anthimos used this to serve his own interests.
However, this has nothing to do with the mosque issue, it’s a totally different situation. In this case, it is obvious that there is a need for at least one official mosque and that the state is procrastinating on purpose. No Muslim disagrees with this. So there is no Muslim that Anthimos can use to support his case. And I think that everyone agrees that the Greek state has to do something about the mosque and the cemetery very soon.