Athens mosque likely to open in September, Greek minister says

Greek Education Minister Kostas Gavroglou said on Friday that Athens would open its first state-sponsored official mosque probably by September, when the €850,000 ($967,000) construction project is completed. “Soon the first prayers will be made by the imam,” Reuters quoted Gavroglou as saying.

There are mosques in other parts of the country, which has a predominantly Christian Orthodox population, but the capital, Athens, has not had a formal mosque since it drove out occupying Ottomans in 1833, and the few that were left have been re-purposed.

More than 200,000 Muslims from countries including Pakistan, Syria, Afghanistan and Bangladesh live in the Greek capital, according to Muslim groups.

Greece has its own Muslim community, which represent about 2 percent of the population who live mainly in the north, where they have their own mosques.