We want to pray in a mosque
September 13, 2010
Source: Ta Nea
Translation © Muslim Association of Greece
Kotzia Square was transformed into an outdoor mosque yesterday morning for about two hours, just opposite of the town hall of Athens. About 4000 Muslims without a mosque prayed the last prayer of Ramadan.
The festive prayer called Eid Al Fitr was organized by the Muslim Association of Greece after consultation with the City of Athens that gave them permission to pray in the square. Muslims living and working in Athens attended the last prayer in celebration of the end of Ramadan (the month of Ramadan).
Once again, however, the representatives of the Muslim Association of Greece and other Muslims pointed out that it is necessary to build a mosque in Athens; thousands of Muslims who live in Attiki pray in inappropriate places such as warehouses, basements, garages, apartments etc.
As the president of the Association said, Kotzia square was chosen because of the no cost. “In previous years we held the prayer at the Olympic Stadium, either in closed or an open space, but you pay rent of about 1,700 euros. This year, things are strained by the economic crisis, so we came to an agreement with the City of Athens.”
Votanikos. The government in April decided to go with direct procedures for the construction of a mosque for 500 people in the Navy base of the Botanical Fortress. According to information from the Ministry of Education, the preparation for the relocation services of the Navy from the site has now completed.
“Unfortunately these procedures are progressing slowly, as with other things in Greece. It is though a cultural requirement to have a mosque in Athens. Therefore I appeal to the Ministries of Education and National Defence and the Municipality of Athens to find a solution quickly,” said Mr. Elghandour. Indeed, the Muslim Association of Greece is the one that in recent years has raced and is liaising with ministries in order to build a mosque in Athens.
As a reminder, the bill for the construction of the mosque is in place since 2006. Indeed, the ND government then had promised that the mosque will be ready in late 2009. However, the bureaucracy and misunderstandings between the ministries turned the case of the “mosque in Athens” to Artas Bridge…
Seraphim “delirium” for the granting
In a four-page announcement … holy crazy issued yesterday, Eparch Seraphim of Piraeus says the prayer of the Muslims should not be in public open space as in Kotzia Square. The Eparch, who for some time now is a member of the Standing Holy Synod, used harsh words to characterize the granting of the square by the municipality of Athens irresponsible. He connects even the prayer for the Muslims with the Turks in Greece, saying that such prayer is the “first in regular life again after the revolution and the shaking off of the brutal Turkish atrocities.” Please note that they [the Muslims at the prayer] come from various countries.
Translated by: Elena Nikolova
A letter from Romania
July 7, 2010
Now that we’ve been working for the Islamic community in Greece, I’ve been thinking about other Muslim communities in Europe a lot lately, especially the forgotten ones like in the Balkan countries. For some reason, I keep coming back to Romania and just today, I stumbled across an article about the Muslim community of Romania!
I was touched by this article below and how similar it is to the situation in Greece.
Source: The Balkan Chronicle
There are many countries in the world where Islam springs to mind when they are mentoned, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Morrocco are just a few. There are many other lands Islam reached that many from amongst the Ummah may not be aware of, such as Western China, Greece, Southern Italy, Hungary and maybe even Austria. Romania is also one such land that many may not be aware lived under Islamic rule for 800 years. Many may not even know where Romania is, it is only 275 miles from Turkey.
In Europe Romania is infamous for Transylvania – home of Count Dracula. Whilt this character has assumed a position archetypal vampire in populer Western culture; the character is based upon Prince of Wallachia. Vlad III, who came to be known as the impaler. Historically, Vlad Dracula became infamous for his resistance against the Uthmani Khilafah and for the cruel punishments he inflicted upon his enemies.
Vlad Dracula was sent in 1475 with an army of Hungarian and Serbian soldiers to recapture Bosnia from the Uthmani Khilafah. Whilst the Uthmani Khilafah lost this initial battle, the Uthmani’s entered Wallachia in 1476 under the command of Mehmed II to recapture the lost lands. During the war, Vlad was killed and, according to some sources, his head was sent to Constantinople to discourage the other rebellions.
According to most sources in Romania, Islam first emerged when the Sufi leader Sari Saltik came to the region during the Byzantine epoch. The Islamic presence in Northern Dobruja was expanded by Uthmani Khilafah who oversaw successive immigration. In Wallachia and Moldavia, the two Danubian Principalities, the era of Uthmani’s did not accompany growth in the number of Muslims, whose presence there remained small. Also the battles between the Uthmani’s and Habsburg Empire led to many Muslim to move to the Islamic heatlands.
Romania emerged in 1859 as a union of the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia. Northern Dobruja became part of Romania following the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878. However during the the communist regime, Romanian Muslims were subject to a number of harsh measures, especially supervision by the state. The Ummah in Romania managed to hold on to the deen and were able after the Romanian Revolution of 1989 to begin the open dawah to Islam.
Islam in Romania is followed by only 0.3 percent of population, this equates to around 60,000 people, but has more than 800 years of tradition in Northern Dobruja, a region on the Black Sea coast which was part of the Uthmani Khilafah for almost five centuries (ca. 1420-1878). In present-day Romania, most adherents to Islam belong to the Tatar and Turkish ethnic communities.
The vast majority of Romanians are Sunnis who adhere to the Hanafi madhab.
97% of Romanian Muslims are residents of the two counties forming Northern Dobruja: eighty-five percent live in Constanţa County, and twelve percent in Tulcea County. The rest mainly inhabit urban centers such as Bucharest, Brăila, Călăraşi, Galaţi, Giurgiu, and Drobeta-Turnu Severin.
In all, Romania has as many as eighty mosques, or, according to records kept by the Romanian Ministry of Culture and Religious Affairs, seventy-seven. The city of Constanţa, with its Carol I Mosque and the location of the Muftiyat, is the center of Romanian Islam; Mangalia, near Constanţa, is the site of a monumental mosque, built in 1525. The two mosques are state-recognised historical monuments, as are the ones in Hârşova, Amzacea, Babadag and Tulcea. There are also 108 Islamic cemeteries in Romania.
After the Romanian Revolution in 1989, when Romania left the Eastern Communist camp native Romanians had the chance to discover Islam and taste its fruits. Today as many as 3,000 Muslim are converts to Islam and the number is growing day by day. Being converts they faced the particular problem in a society, in that society was not prepared to accept them. Most groups in Romania show little will to support Muslims generally. For these reasons the Ummah in Romania were forced to create an organisation capable of defending and maintaining the needs of the Ummah in Romania. The Alliance of Romanian Muslim was set up in order to protect and defend the Ummah and Islam in Romania.
When Islam came to Europe the continent was living in the dark ages. Eastern Europe was steeped in superstition, magic and sorcery. Islam came and brought a new rational belief that took the region from its misery and gave their lives purpose. Whilst in mainland Europe the challenge is to defend the deen, in Romania and many parts of Eastern Europe once again the people need liberation from capitalism and nationalism and it is here the Muslim of Romania are at the forefront carrying on the work the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم started and the Uthmani Khilafah expanded. Whilst the Ummah face the same issues globally, the Ummah from Romania stand shoulder to shoulder with the Ummah all over the world and await the day Allah sends his blessings.
Patriarch: ready to turn to the European court for human rights
December 21, 2009
Source: Skai.gr
Translated © Greeks Rethink
An interview of Ecumenical Patriarch for a Turkish newspaper
“[I am] determined to drive the case of Theological School of Halki to the European Court of Human Rights,” states to an interview for a Turkish newspaper, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.
Mr. Bartholomew repeats to “Haber Turk” that the patriarchy wishes to operate the school again as it used to reminding that the two latest ministers of Education of Turkey have stated that there is no legal obstacle for its re-opening.
“If by the end of the year there is not any development for the Halki issue then we will exhaust all legal measures in Turkey and go to the European Court,” he states.
In the same interview, Mr. Bartholomew reveals the content of a recent conversation with Turkish Prime Minister Rejeb Tayib Erdogan. Most likely he referred to what they discussed last August at Pringipos when Mr. Erdogan visited the Monastery of Saint George Koudounas and the wooden building of the orphanage where he was welcomed by the Patriarch.
At this discussion Mr. Bartholomew asked the re-opening of the Theological School and the reply of Mr. Erdogan was that “in Athens there is no mosque”.
The Ecumenical Patriarch replied to him that this is not his responsibility on this specific issue and that he would not object with the existence of a praying place for the Muslims that live in Athens.
“We paid the consequences of the Tukish-Greek relations and of Cypriot Issue. We are citizens of this country and we want our rights” said between others the Ecumenical Patriarch.
Greek slant on Euroarabia and Islamophobia
October 28, 2009
Source: Enet.gr
by Pericles Korovesis, PM SYRIZA to the Greek Parliament.
Is Europe in danger of becoming Islamized? How can Turkey, a non-Christian country that never has had Renaissance and the Age of Enlightenment, integrate into Europe without distorting its characteristics? Should all Muslims be expelled from Europe in order to find the lost identity?
These are some questions and more similar others that the Right and extreme Right Wing of Europe and the USA are asked to answer. Several books have been written and the Yellow Press officiates of racist campaigns of any kind incriminate immigrants that have Islamic religion.
Racism and nationalism, in order to make its arguments seem truthful, must distort reality. So the fact is concealed that in Europe, out of 493 million residents, only 3-4% are Muslims. And still they do not bring the question of who brought them. After World War II, Europe needed cheap workers. Where could they find them? The old empires sufficiently destroyed their colonies. France made mass import of workers from North Africa. Britons brought workers from India and Pakistan. Holland brought Moroccans. Germany preferred to bring Turkish, but also took Greeks, Yugoslavians and Italians. Even the Spanish that did not want Muslims at all for historical reasons brought Muslims massively in 1970 for the needs of their economy.
Mainly, this working force was occupied for the hardest and heaviest jobs, was living in the urban ghettos and never attained the same rights with the natives. Even the second or third generation that had no Islamic education and the vast majority of them went to public schools (in France only 5% of the Muslims go to the mosques), they have not become first class citizens. Surely there are extremists as they exist in every religion. But they are an insignificant minority cut from the Muslim community. If we can talk about something like that, their problem is not the Islamization of Europe, but the unemployment that hits always the weak.
The extreme right parties as the National Front of France, Liberty party of Austria or the British National Party etc., have invented a neologism: “Euroarabia”. And that means new pogroms. Islamophobia takes the place of the old anti-Semitism that carries basic characteristics to Islam. For example, that behind any world conspiracy Islam and Arabs are hiding. After 9/11, terrorism and Islam were coincided, and was formed the axis of good Bush and of bad Muslim. In Greece, these theories have not found a ground yet, because what prevails is the native xenophobia and the specialized Turkophobia. But besides this, we have made neither a mosque nor cemetery for the Muslims. And maybe this is our own Islamophobia. At the point where there is no tolerance for the others, the different, there is no democracy and we enter in dangerous paths. And the other becomes the enemy.
Bar in Cyprus mosque infuriates Muslims
October 27, 2009
Source: IslamOnline.net (Other coverage in Turkish news)
CAIRO – The building of a bar in the garden of a historic mosque in South Cyprus has infuriated local Muslims who warn the provocative action could foment ethnic tensions in the disputed island.
“What they are trying to construct in the garden of the mosque is not in accordance with the values [of Islam],” Hala Mosque Imam ?akir Alemdar told Zaman daily on Monday, October 26.
Greek authorities in South Cyprus announced the construction of a bar in the garden of the historic Hala Mosque to allegedly serve tourists visiting the site. The decision stirred a wave of criticism from local Muslims offended by the provocative action.
“The Greeks know in their territory there are some traces left from the Ottoman Empire,” said Mehmet Dere, the Head of the Religious Worker’s Union. “They should stop the construction.”
Hala Mosque is the most revered Muslim shrine in Cyprus and an important holy site for the entire Muslim world. It reportedly houses the tomb of Umm Haram, the aunt of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessing be upon him). Most accounts establish a connection between the site and the death of Umm Haram during the first Arab attempts to conquer Cyprus under Caliph Muawiyah between 647 and 649.
According to these accounts, Umm Haram, being of very old age, had fallen from her mule and had died during a siege of Larnaca in south Cyprus. She was buried near the salt lake and her grave became a sacred shrine. The shrine, and later the mosque and the whole complex, was named after her.
Harmful
Muslim leaders warn the construction of a bar would be hurtful to the relations between Turkish Muslims and Greek non-Muslims on the island.
“Religious values should be respected in order for relations between the two sides to remain positive,” said Yusuf Suiçmez, Director of Religious Affairs Directorate in the Turkish Republic or Northern Cyprus (KKTC).
Cyprus, the Mediterranean’s third largest island, is partitioned into two main parts. The area under the effective control of the Republic of Cyprus comprises about 59 percent of the island’s area and is a European Union member. The Turkish-held area in the north covers about 37 percent of the island’s area and recognized only by Turkey as an independent state.
Suiçmez said his directorate has recently filed a complaint at the state offices in Greek Cyprus, but has so far received no response. Imam Alemdar said the provocation move is offending to Muslims all over the world not just in Cyprus.
“If the construction goes on and officials do not intervene to stop it, we would make this incident more public to the world,” he said. “It is not an issue related to the KKTC but to the entire Muslim world. Every Muslim should be paying attention to this.”
Movie review: Waiting for the clouds
March 28, 2009
The movie, Waiting for the Clouds, depicts the story of an elderly woman named Ajshe, who was a survivor of the turbulent 1920’s that reshaped the Balkans by war, genocides, evictions, forced population exchanges, new nation formation/expansion, political ideological clashes and nationalistic fervor on all sides.
Ajshe never though forgot her childhood identity and memories which she kept hidden deep inside her for many years. At a very young age she was one of the victims of those turbulent times when she, known then as Eleni, was given by her father, after a difficult march from their native Mersin (southern Turkey) to a Muslim family from the Black Sea region (Pontos-Karadeniz) who promised to protect and rear her as their own.
Eleni’s family roots were Rum (Christian). There in Pontos Eleni (Ajshe) lived for many years yearning especially to reunite with a long lost brother who got caught up in the great population exchange between Muslims from the areas newly acquired by Greece and Christians from the newly formed state of Turkey known as the Laussane Treaty of 1922.
The movie was interesting as it was based on some true elements in history that surrounded the Communist movement taking place in Turkey in the early 1970s. Apparently, it seems that Ajshe’s father, in the early 1920s, may have been a communist who were seen by the Turkish state as sympathizers with communist Russia and therefore traitors. Russia was one of the powers who dreamt at a piece of the pie after the dismemberment of the Ottoman State and dreamt of the incorporation of Turkish land into her nation.
As history tells us, the Pontians (Karadenizler) mainly live in Northern and North Eastern Turkey most of whom for various reasons chose to convert to Islam during the Ottoman period, although quite a few remained Christian, and so you will see that their language is a mix of an old Hellenic form and Turkish. A fraction of Pontians (Christians) were forcefully expelled to Greece in the 1922 exchange of populations and were settled into lands and homes of Muslims forced out of Greece.
Even though the movie had some religious elements to it, it was mainly focused on political ideological struggles and to a lesser extent ethnic ideas and conflicts and therefore, I do not recommend watching it to gain anything Islamic out of it since there were some folklore practices mentioned that have nothing to do with Islam but with local practices that predate Islam and perhaps even Christianity.
But, if you’re just looking for an emotional movie filled with human tenderness and beautiful scenery, and just a slight insight into political/ethnic tensions this just might be the movie for you.
Mosque and cemetery: too much to ask?
February 13, 2009
This an article by our brother and head of the Muslim Association of Greece, Naim El-Ghandour, published with IslamOnline.net.
In an ancient region called Thrace, North East of Greece, a Muslim community of about 120, 000 Muslims is based. Historically, the population of this city was exempted from applying the provisions of the Treaty of Lausanne VI, 1923; a treaty which aimed at applying an obligatory exchange of populations between Greece and Turkey following World War I. This Muslim minority is composed of three ethnic groups, in which the element of homogeneity is absent. More specifically, 50 percent of Thrace’s Muslims are of Turkish origin, 35 percent are Pomaks [1], and 15 percent are Roma people [2]. Each of the aforementioned groups has its own language and traditions. They have their own muftis, imams, mosques, cemeteries, schools, etc. But they are all united, mainly, in their strong connections with Turkey, such as joining Turkish universities, migrating into Turkey for work, etc.
Besides the first Turkish Muslim group there is another group of Muslims in Greece which includes immigrants who had settled in Greece during the last 40 years coming mainly form Arab countries and partly from other Islamic ones. These Muslims are doing all kinds of jobs all over this European country, not only as low-profession workers who are estimated at 90 percent of the total immigrant percentage. Some of these immigrants have better opportunities and work in high-professions, so there are doctors, scientists, professors, entrepreneurs, businessmen, and importers.
The last smallest group of Muslims consists of the converted Greek Muslims who embraced Islam after studying it, or after getting married to Muslims whereby they had the chance to meet Muslims and interact with them. Those were the three Muslim groups living in Greece with different characteristics and cultures and are estimated at 830,000.
Muslim Associations in Greece
The Association of Muslims in Greece (AMG) was established in 2003. It is the organization that brings together all Muslims from all over Greece. It is located in Athens, where about 700.000 Muslims live. The Association of Muslims in Greece exerts efforts to defend the Muslims’ rights in several fields, like having an official mosque and a Muslim graveyard, etc. Many Muslim citizens contribute to the AMG’s efforts including permanent residents who pay taxes to the Hellenic State, the legal immigrants, the university students, and also the political refugees. Even Sunnis and Shiite are united under the umbrella of the AMG while having the same demands for an official Hellenic Mosque and a common Muslim cemetery.
The History of Greek Mosques
Surprisingly, there is no official mosque in Greece up to the moment. However, there are some unofficial mosques in Greece which totally depend on the private efforts of the Muslims there. The first mosque in Athens was built in 1985 by the Sudanese Dr. Munir Abdelrasul in Goudi, a neighborhood of Athens; the second in 1989 by myself, Naim El-Ghandour, at Piraeus district; the third in 1989 by the Egyptian Mohiy Eldin in the center of Athens; the fourth in 1993 by the Palestinian Mazen Rassas at Neos Kosmos in Athens. Many mosques were established then and Greece now has 67 Islamic places for worship in Athens only. These mosques attract all Muslims from both Arab and non-Arab backgrounds, like the Persians, Greeks, Albanians, Sub-Saharan Africans, and European Muslims. The Greek State did not raise any objection against the private efforts of Muslims in building mosques as there is no other place for them to practice their religion.
Financing Mosques in Greece
The fundraisers of the places for worship are the owners and Muslims who spend a lot of money to cover the rent and other expenses. At Friday prayers, Muslims usually give alms to the mosque. In fact, sometimes the charity money is enough to cover the mosques’ expenses and sometimes it is not. All mosques in Athens are self-funded except for only one mosque which is funded from abroad since it belongs to the Federation of Islamic Organization in Europe (FIOE).
Efforts With the Governments
Few years ago, the Association of Muslims in Greece had many attempts to approach the government for the official mosque and the cemetery. Muslims communicated with the Ministry of Education and Religions and conducted several meetings regarding the needs of Muslims in Athens. Greek Muslims were mainly concerned with the following issues: how would a mosque in Athens operate harmoniously with all different nationalities and languages, and the demands of a mosque. Finally, the state greatly appreciated our proposal and we had a very satisfactory law that describes the Athens Mosque as a mosque built by the Greek state in cooperation with Greeks and EU funds. The government also stated that the mosque’s imam should be certified by an authorized university, like Al Azhar, to be considered officially as a civil servant with a two-year contract.
A Far-Fetched Dream
Unfortunately, after all these efforts and achievements, the Minister of Education and Religions was deposed in a ministerial change. So the whole project was delayed due to lack of information, another ministerial change, and a national need for the money dedicated to the mosque. Muslims’ claims are well known to the public, since they are always hosted in many TV and radio programs and ncluded in the coverage of all online and printed newspapers.
Muslims’ Gathering Events
Feast Prayer at Olympic Stadium
Twice a year on both Islamic `Eids, members of the Arab Muslim community gather in the Olympic stadium of Athens (OAKA) where they perform the `Eid prayers together, often headed by a famous imam from abroad. Greek Muslims of Pakistani origin also go to the SEF Stadium, another big Greek Stadium, due to the different languages, but once the Hellenic mosque is ready, Muslims from different backgrounds agree to meet there no matter which language will the majority adopt.
A Cemetery as Well
Muslims have been trying to achieve this goal since 2005. At that time, the former Archbishop Christodoulou announced that the Church of Greece donated a piece of land for Muslims to build their own cemetery on. The Association of Muslims in Greece got in contact with the Church, which is connected to the government, to proceed with this project. Many months followed, but the archbishop passed away, a new one was elected, and Muslims had to send new letters. The matter was no longer in the hands of the church but in the state’s. Many meetings were held where Muslims reassured their desire to have the cemetery very soon. When they felt that there were no steps taken, they addressed the Minister of Internal Affairs Mr. Prokopis Pavlopoulos and asked to meet him as Muslims consider this a matter of human dignity.
And Muslims’ efforts still go on…
Are you a Greek Muslim or a Muslim living there? What do you think of the Muslim status in Greece? How do you think Muslims can integrate into the Greek society while maintaining their Islamic identity?
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[1] An indigenous population that initially lost its native tongue and subsequently espoused Islam during the Ottoman occupation. They are also said to be a Bulgarian-speaking Muslim population group native to some parts of Bulgaria, specifically southern Bulgaria, and the adjacent parts of Greece and Turkey.
[2] An ethnic group with origins in South Asia who are widely dispersed with their largest concentrated populations in Europe.
Sources:
Hellenic Resources Network: Miscellaneous Greek News Sources. The Muslim Minority of Greek Thrace. April 1996.
Greece shaken up over UN and newly announced ECHR Visit
October 2, 2008
Source: http://macedoniaonline.eu/content/view/3453/46/
Published Date: September 16, 2008
The UN Minorities Expert Gay McDougall is in Greece. According to the Macedonians in Greece, the Government in Athens will try in every way to show the visit as non important, although, they say, Greek Media has been following the story with great interest.
Namely, for the past two days, the UN representative is in Thrace speaking to the Turkish minority which is been referred by Athens
The Greek Government does accept a ’muslim’ minority, without specifying their ethnicity. The Turks and Pomaks are seeking autonomy for their region. McDougall also visited the Roma population.
The UN representative visiting the area insisting to be accompanied by representatives of the Macedonians in
Instead, Mina finds, the Greek Government had planned for McDougall to avoid the regions where Macedonians lived, and instead take her to the municipality of Kutlesh, to show the Vlach minority.
According to Greek daily Eleftheros Typos, in its article “Minority Games”, Greece is one of the three countries that McDougall will visit this year. The other two where minority abuse is recorded are Ethiopia and Hungary.
Typos says official Athens is not commenting much on the visit, though Diplomats have confirmed this visit is a problem for Greece.
Parallel to this, the axis Ankara – Skopje which developed after the Bucharest Summit grows stronger with the aim to create minority problems for Greece, concludes the Greek daily.Yesterday afternoon, the Greek Government received a note from the European Commission of Human Rights which announced their visit at the beginning of next month.
Muslim Places of Worship in Cyprus
July 16, 2008
A new revision of the book, Muslim Places of Worship was published recently by the Press and Information Office of Cyprus. While I’ve read some (expected) negative hype about it from non-Muslim Cypriots online, Dr. Tarek Radwan, a professor at the Al-Azhar University in Cairo states that, “The present volume highlights the reality of peaceful co-existence that prevailed for centuries between the Christian Greek and Muslim Turkish ethnic communities…”
Although Muslims comprise mainly of Turkish ethnic communities, there are some Greek converts to Islam in Cyprus and the story by Maryam Eustathiou below that was published by IslamOnline.net is proof of it:
Like a Newborn Child – A Catholic Woman Discovers Islam
Being brought up in a Catholic Christian household I always felt the importance of being in a religion, and respecting the will of God. However even from an early age I sensed that the religion I was brought up in was not quite what I expected. My earliest memories bring me to a typical Sunday scene sitting in church and looking around me, not digesting what the priest was saying, and staring at a hall full of statues and paintings of various “religious” scenes and persons.
I always remember asking myself: can this be it?
