In a Europe Torn Over Mosques, A City Offers Accommodation {ROP-European socialist barf alert}

Washington Post ^ | December 9, 2007 | Molly Moore

[3AngelaD]

CRETEIL, France -- ...200 Muslim worshipers crowded into a former carpentry workshop here for noon prayers. The men knelt on red carpets in a first-floor hall, the women squeezed into the tiny office upstairs....But next June, Creteil's Muslims are scheduled to move into a new, $7.4 million mosque with room for more than 2,500 worshipers. The nearly finished building, with its 81-foot minaret, stands on a knoll overlooking the town's picturesque lake, within sight of city hall...

The mosque will make Creteil something of an exception in Europe. From London to Cologne to Marseille, governments and residents are fighting the rise of minarets on their skylines in campaigns that underscore cultural, religious and ethnic divides within a continent undergoing its most dramatic demographic change...Islam is Europe's second-largest religion, and its fastest-growing. But Creteil's government is taking a different path, helping Muslims build and finance what will be one of France's largest new mosques.

"We wanted the mosque to be built where everyone could see it," said Mayor Laurent Cathala, who can watch the construction from his 11th-floor office....Still, the mosque did not come this far without a struggle. French authorities are attempting to deport its imam; city council members are protesting the use of public funds for its adjacent cultural center; and some townsfolk say they fear women may no longer be allowed to wear swimsuits at the lake, for fear of offending the modesty of the worshipers...

In London, proposals for a mega-mosque for 12,000 worshipers near the main park for the 2012 Olympic Games has sparked massive resistance. In the Tuscan hill town of Colle di Val d'Elsa, Italy, protesters pelted local Muslims this year with sausages and dumped a severed pig's head at the front gate of the construction site of a large, golden-domed mosque....

[3AngelaD]

Several comments: The Washpost waits until the end to explain how the Imam at this mosque has been charged by the French government with making inflammatory comments "linked to radical Islam" and are trying to strip Hacene of his citizenship and deport him; the local bank used by the mosque has closed its account because of a concern over "anonymous funding from abroad;" I am not surprised it is a Socialist who has found a way to use public money to fund this mosque and this radical; women remain second-class citizens in mosques; this has nothing to do with "social justice," as the mayor claims; the French ought to just go ahead and turn their damn country over to Islam, because THEY HAVE BEEN TAKEN OVER.

[isrul]

Build it and perhaps it will burn. You just never know when people will grow a spine.

[yoe]

"...$7.4 million mosque with room for more than 2,500 worshipers. The nearly finished building, with its 81-foot minaret, stands on a knoll overlooking the town's picturesque lake, within sight of city hall..."

Lesson 101: Yes Muslims worship in Mosques when they are not studying Islam or listening to lectures.........Mosques are colleges - places of learning - NOT Churches.

[3AngelaD]

Please read first paragraph. Seems to me that they are worshiping...which would make it, first of all, a place of worship.

[Pontiac]

Vichy Lives

Once a collaborator always a collaborator.

[Marathoner 244]

“the French ought to just go ahead and turn their damn country over to Islam, because THEY HAVE BEEN TAKEN OVER.”

________________________________________________________

Most of Europe is headed in this direction. PC is the death knell for European culture as they once knew it. SAD!

[XR7]

In the Tuscan hill town of Colle di Val d'Elsa, Italy, protesters pelted local Muslims this year with sausages and dumped a severed pig's head...

Could be a trend?

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

Mayor Laurent Cthulhu has his head up his butt!

[Gay State Conservative]

If I had the money I’d personally build a pigsty next to every “mosque” in Europe.That would be a blast and a half (no pun intended).

[Publius6961]

But next June, Creteil's Muslims are scheduled to move into a new, $7.4 million mosque with room for more than 2,500 worshipers. The nearly finished building, with its 81-foot minaret, stands on a knoll overlooking the town's picturesque lake, within sight of city hall...

I understand there's a move afoot to rename the town more appropriately to Cretins...

[Publius6961]

Please read first paragraph. Seems to me that they are worshiping...which would make it, first of all, a place of worship.

Typical doofus logic.
What's the aggregate time used in prayer, and what for "other uses"?

Don't even go there, comparing it to Christian churches. I never heard of a single Christian group holding re-education camps in churches with the principal focus of "killing Israel"; or anyone else.

[3AngelaD]

No need for ad hominem attacks there, Publius, if you know what that means. Do you think I am defending this, or supporting the actions of this Socialist mayor? Did you read my comments? Did you take time out of your busy schedule of putting people down and insulting them to read the article? Or are you just feeling unusually nasty today? I have no doubt this place will be used as an indoctrination center to teach hate not only of Israel, but of the country and people that are tolerating them in their midst. I just wouldn’t characterize it as a “college.” It is a pagan place of worship.

[3AngelaD]

Oh, and by the way, the word "cretin" derives from the word "Christian:" [French crétin, from French dialectal, deformed and mentally retarded person found in certain Alpine valleys, from Vulgar Latin *christinus, Christian...from Latin Chrstinus, Christian; see Christian.] The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition