Greek Orthodox Bishop Seraphim of Piraeus said: "I want to emphasize that Athens is the only European capital that went through four centuries of slavery under Islam, and managed to free itself just 200 years ago by spilling rivers of blood."
"Building a mosque would offend the martyrs who freed us," Seraphim said in a separate interview with the BBC. "We are not a multicultural country."
Bishop Seraphim is absolutely correct to oppose construction of a government-funded mosque, for precisely the reasons he mentions. The Greek government may collapse over this. Forcing taxpayer funding of a mosque is to commit civilizational suicide. It is payment of the Islamic jizya tax in hopes of appeasing the Muslim population in Greece. The Greek government has in effect declared its submission to Islam. If this mosque project goes forward, it will bode ill for Orthodox Christians in Greece, and may herald a new dark age of Muslim domination of Greece, with strife along the lines of what the Serbs have suffered.
Clash of Civilizations: Greeks Oppose Govt. Mosque Project
Fearing the Muslim-related tensions could spiral out of control, the Greek Parliament voted in September 2011 to move ahead with the plan to build a taxpayer-funded mosque.
 |
Muslim immigrants pray during Eid al-Adha in front of Athens university in 2010. Local residents threw eggs in protests of the illegal take-over of public space in a central square of the capital. (Photo: © Reuters)
|
The Greek government has awarded a tender to build the first taxpayer-funded mosque in Athens, one of the few remaining capitals in the European Union that lacks a state-funded mosque.
The Ministry of Infrastructure, Transport and Networks
said on November 14 that it had finally chosen a consortium of four construction companies to build the mosque. Four previous tenders had failed due to a lack of interest amid mounting public opposition to the mosque.
Construction of the 600 square meter (6,500 square foot) mosque—which will cost Greek taxpayers at least €950,000 ($1.3 million)—is due to begin within the next two months. Once the contracts are signed, the tender calls for the project to be completed within six months.
The plan calls for renovating an existing government-owned building on a disused naval base in the industrial district of Votanikos near the center of Athens. The mosque—which will not have minarets—will have a capacity for around 500 worshippers.
Yet, outside the planned site, residents — led by a local Greek Orthodox bishop named Seraphim [Bishop Seraphim of Piraeus] — have filed a motion against plans to build the mosque with the Council of State, the highest administrative court in Greece.
In an interview with the Greek newspaper
Ekathimerini, Seraphim said: "I want to emphasize that Athens is the only European capital that went through four centuries of slavery under Islam, and managed to free itself just 200 years ago by spilling rivers of blood."
"Building a mosque would offend the martyrs who freed us," Seraphim said in a separate interview with the
BBC. "We are not a multicultural country."
The mosque plan has also generated considerable controversy for economic reasons. Opponents of the mosque argue that Greek taxpayers should not be footing the bill for this project at a time when their massively indebted country is dependent upon foreign aid just to stay afloat.
According to the latest available
statistics, the Greek economy—which has been struggling through six years of recession—contracted by another 3% during the third quarter of 2013. The unemployment rate now exceeds 27% (the jobless rate for those under 25 exceeds 60%) and
analysts say the Greek economic crisis shows no signs of ending.
But the Greek government appears to be worried about thinly veiled threats of violence by thousands of Muslim residents in Athens who have been pressuring government ministers to meet their demands for a mosque or face an uprising.
