Posted on 11/09/2006 2:30:04 PM PST by InterestedQuestioner
ATHENS, Greece, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- The Greek Parliament has authorized the building of a mosque in Athens to serve the 200,000 Muslims who live in the city.
Athens is the only European capital city with no Islamic place of worship. The government had been under pressure from the European Union to allow greater freedom of religion, the Turkish news agency Anadolu reported. The mosque is to be built on a 42,000-square-foot lot in the central neighborhood of Votanikos. The cost is estimated at $19.23 million.
The thousands of Muslims in the capital have been worshipping in makeshift prayer rooms set aside in apartment buildings. Greek Education and Religious Affairs Minister Maria Yannaku said the mosque is to be operated by the government.
Ping to a related topic.
Paging Mark Steyn.
cutting-their-own-throats bump
"200,000 Muslims who live in the city."
That's bull. There aren't 200,000 Mohammedans in Athens! On the other hand, however many there are, there are 2500 Greek Orthodox in Constantinople and the Turks won't even allow repair of any churches without government approval.
Of course, we can spin this to say that at least with them all in one devil temple the Greeks can keep an eye on them easier.
There goes the neighborhood.
See anything about Greek and Turk hatred, the Armenian massacre, the Greek Turkish war of 1919-22 (I think), the history of the Greek millet, the surrender of the territory in Turkey to the Turks, etc.
This hatred is legendary.
Guess they have no separation of church and state.
Or................are the members of the government intimidated by the Muslims?
Something to think about........
"The Ottoman Empire brought with it massacres, torture, slavery,
the kidnapping of boys for the Janissaries, the enslavement of
women into the harems, and intolerable political and economic
pressure that resulted in the further decimation of Hellenism.
For even when Hellenes were not massacred, the destruction
of Hellenism occurred with the loss of national identity. Conversions
to Islam and Turkification contributed to the nightmare of the loss
of independence and national sovereignty.
In May 1919, the armies of a free and independent Greece
entered the glorious and long suffering city of Smyrna. For a brief
time it appeared that the extermination of the Hellenic race had
ceased. During the First World War, the Young Turks began to
murder the Hellenic populations in Asia Minor, along with the
Armenians and the Assyrians.
Ultimately, Mustafa Kemal Pasha became an instrument of western
imperialism and as such Turkish racism earned the
unconditional assistance of the United States, Great Britain,
France, and Italy. The murderous psychopath Mustafa Kemal was
aided by the western powers while the Greek Army in Asia Minor
was cut off by an embargo imposed by the western powers. In
September 1922, beautiful Smyrna was conquered by the Kemalists
and burned. Over 100,000 Greeks and 30,000 Armenians were
slaughtered.
Special mention must be made of Metropolitan Chrysostom of
Smyrna. This brave and noble Greek Orthodox Cleric supported the
Greek liberators in 1919, and was a voice for the aspirations of a
nation that had been enslaved, humiliated, massacred, and
denigrated for centuries. When the news broke that the Kemalist
aggressors would retake Smyrna, it became apparent that the
Greeks and the Armenians would not survive."
Just one example:
http://www.greekwinnipeg.com/special.htm
"Or................are the members of the government intimidated by the Muslims?"
No, Greeks know just what to do to Mohammedans when and if the time comes. I suspect that its more a fear of Eurocrats than Mohammedans. Greece has been transformed in many ways, good and bad, by the EU. On balance, the good predominates. In any event, the government will control the mosque and the Minister of Religious and Education Affairs is Orthodox (the State Church, Greek Orthodox, sees to that).
"The majority of non-citizen residents and immigrants were not Greek Orthodox....Aside from the indigenous Muslim minority in Thrace, the Muslim immigrant population in the rest of the country was estimated at 200,000 to 300,000."
Yeah, well, from this administration's TROP State Dept., I'm not surprised. Its a lie.
Steyn on the USA and Islam
Mark Steyn is also a commentator on divisions between the United States and Europe, as well as divisions between the West and the Islamic World. He frequently criticizes the tolerance of perceived Islamic cultural intolerance in the name of multiculturalism. Steyn has been accused of prejudice against Muslims, and indeed appears to relish being accused of Islamophobia.
Steyn has written:
"As I understand it, the benefits of multiculturalism are that the sterile white-bread cultures of Australia, Canada and Britain get some great ethnic restaurants and a Commonwealth Games opening ceremony that lasts until two in the morning. But, in the case of those Muslim ghettoes in Sydney, in Oslo, in Paris, in Copenhagen and in Manchester, multiculturalism means that the worst attributes of Muslim culture -- the subjugation of women -- combine with the worst attributes of Western culture -- licence and self-gratification. Tattoed, pierced Pakistani skinhead gangs swaggering down the streets of Northern England are as much a product of multiculturalism as the turban-wearing Sikh Mountie in the vice-regal escort at Rideau Hall. Yet even in the face of the crudest assaults on its most cherished causes -- women's rights, gay rights -- the political class turns squeamishly away.
"As one is always obliged to explain when tiptoeing around this territory, I'm not a racist, only a culturist. I believe Western culture -- rule of law, universal suffrage, etc. -- is preferable to Arab culture: that's why there are millions of Muslims in Scandinavia, and four Scandinavians in Syria. Follow the traffic. I support immigration, but with assimilation."
In other articles he has approvingly quoted Winston Churchill's description of Islam as the "strongest retrograde force... in the world". He described as "rather shrewd" Churchill's statement, "How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live."
Yep, that's Steyn. His book, AMERICA ALONE should be mandatory reading.
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