Video - Mosque in Athens, Full & Related Articles

ꕤ Article SOURCE 'Mosque in Athens'  Debate - Intelligence Squared FULL VERSION 27 Nov 2012 Transcript Douglas Murray Link  |  here Last Updated: Tuesday, 18 July 2006, 11:24 GMT 12:24 UK Athens Muslims to get a mosque By Andrew Burroughs BBC News, Athens Ottoman mosque turned into museum This Ottoman era mosque is now a museum Plans for the first mosque in Athens since Turkish rule under the Ottoman empire have been given the go-ahead by the Greek parliament. Over recent years immigration has brought hundreds of thousands of Muslims to the Greek capital. But while freedom of worship is guaranteed by Greece's constitution as a member of the European Union, proposals for a new mosque have proved controversial in a country whose population is 96% Greek Orthodox. There are mosques dating from Ottoman times in the old part of Athens known as Plaka. The Fethiye or victory mosque dates back to 1458. But today these buildings are for tourists not for Muslim prayers. One is now a museum of Greek folk art. Athens is the only EU capital without a purpose-built place of worship for its Muslim population. The city's 200,000 or so Muslims have been meeting in disused basements and whatever space the community can find. Technically these buildings lack proper legal permission to function as places of worship, though the city authorities, aware of the problem, have allowed meetings to continue while a solution is sought. Demonstrations In the run-up to the Olympics, and under pressure to portray Greece as internationalist and conciliatory, the then socialist government chose a site for a Saudi-sponsored mosque and Islamic centre east of Athens to be visible from the international airport. That provoked demonstrations by nearby residents of the staunchly conservative town of Peannia. Today there's a small Greek Orthodox chapel on site, built to commemorate the protests which thwarted the mosque proposal. On special occasions a bell is rung, and on the hilltop a cross now defiantly looks towards the airport. "We are Orthodox Christians here," says Angelo Kouias, a Peannia resident, involved in the protests. "We believe that when you arrive at the frontier of Greece it would be better to see a church to symbolise our country rather than a mosque." "We don't want another Kosovo here close to Athens," says Dr Athanasius Papagiorgiou, a surgeon and president of the group which opposed the plan, the religiously conservative Association of St John. "Kosovo used to be a centre for the orthodox faith, and today it's nothing." Lost privilege Professor George Moustakis represents a different face of orthodoxy - a campaigner for interfaith understanding who joined a petition in favour of a mosque 17 years ago. "I've always opposed the connection of church and state here in Greece, which has meant the church took the decision about other denominations and other faiths and their buildings for worship," he says.  [But for all his airy-fairy ideals, he is paving the way to connection of Islam to state] "Parliament has now voted and the church lost that privilege. So there is no problem about the mosque, the government supports it, so does the Orthodox Church."  [All sold out to the Saudis?] With the church veto gone and support from the current centre-right government, Naim El Ghandour - who in daily life imports high fashion fabric designs - is the man coordinating plans for a new mosque to be built in the north of Athens. "The Muslims of Athens are Greek tax-payers and we have a right to pray in a respectful building," he says "We're asking the government for financial help. We're not looking for foreign sponsors, this will be a Greek mosque for Greek Muslims." [Solution:  live in Saudi Arabia & pray there.  Greeks are not Muslims.  All taxpayers are not equal.  No such thing as 'Greek Muslims'.  What a scam.  Greeks do not deserve the imposition of Islamic culture, religion and political power upon native Greeks, hundreds of years after fighting off Islamic invasion.] The saga of the Athens mosque finds echoes elsewhere in Europe. The city of Grenada in Spain has just witnessed the opening of its first new mosque since the 15th Century when the Spanish re-conquered the Iberian peninsula from the Moorish Islamic rulers who built the historic mosques and palaces of Andalusia.  [Sacrilege.  I'm not religious, but I see this as a desecration.  A desecration of European territory, history, culture and society.] The new mosque opened for worship only after two decades of objections from the local authorities on planning grounds. And in Italy a mosque planned for seven years in Colle di Val d'Elsa in a picturesque corner of Tuscany has divided the local community. There the local authority supports the need for a mosque but there have been objections from residents. It is a scenario likely to be repeated around the EU as the need for immigrant labour draws into the community those of a different faith, who then naturally wish to take up their equal right to a place of worship. [What, Latin America hasn't a population that would work in Europe?] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5190256.stm Published December 14th 2013 08:51pm Greek neo-Nazi party protests Athens mosque Shouting 'Greece belongs to the Greeks' and 'No mosque in Athens,' Golden Dawn's supporters stage rally Some 700 members and supporters of Greek neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn protested Saturday against the construction of Athens' first official mosque, the state-run Athens News Agency reported. Shouting "Greece belongs to the Greeks" and "No mosque in Athens", protesters gathered in the Eleonas neighborhood in central Athens where the mosque will be constructed, according to the agency. Lawmaker Eleni Zaroulia -- the wife of Golden Dawn leader Nikos Michaloliakos -- and three more of the party's elected deputies reportedly participated in the protest. Michaloliakos is currently in pre-trial detention, charged with running a criminal organisation following a musician's murder by one of the group's supporters in September. In November, the government announced that a Greek consortium had been chosen to lead the construction of Athens' first mosque, 13 years after plans were first announced. Five previous attempts to find a business group to back the project had failed. Athens is one of the few European capitals without an official mosque, but in recent years several non-official places of worship have appeared in the Greek capital thanks to an increasing numbers of immigrants from countries such as Pakistan. [One of the few European capitals without an official mosque?  No wonder the clerics are issuing victory fatwas.] In 2011, the Greek government was forced to adopt a law ensuring the mosque's construction. But concerns over where to place the mosque and protests from the far right led to the failure of five contract tenders. The only official mosques in Greece are situated in the northeast region of Thrace, where a minority group of Muslim Turks live. http://www.i24news.tv/en/news/international/europe/131216-greek-neo-nazi-party-protests-athens-mosque Construction of First Mosque in Athens to Start Soon By Philip Chrysopoulos - Aug 5, 2015 Construction of the first mosque in Athens will start as soon as final details of the much-delayed project are ironed out and the building permit is about to be issued. It has been seventy years since it was decided to build a mosque in Athens. The delays have been a constant source of tension with the Muslim world. The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation has been highly critical of the delays, with the Minister of Culture, Education and Religious Affairs Aristides Baltas stressing that these delays are used to defame Greece. ['seventy years' must be a mistake.  must be 7 years. / So Greece is being *bullied* into mosque building, given 'tensions with the Muslim world'.  Greece, tell them you'll comply when there's a magnificent church of victory erected in Mecca.] In recent years the tender for the construction had been repeated five times and a successful bidder was selected in November 2013. The project has a budget of 964,000 euros and it will be constructed on a plot of land owned by the Greek Navy. It is located in the area of Eleonas in Athens where a former Navy workshop building will be converted into a mosque. The last detail remaining is the settlement of a stream that should not cause any more delays. The building of the Athens mosque is one of the priorities of the SYRIZA government and Alexis Tsipras has promised that he will complete it. The project, however, is met with many reactions from the Greek Orthodox Church. Metropolitan Bishop of Piraeus Seraphim has appealed to stop the construction. http://greece.greekreporter.com/2015/08/05/construction-of-first-mosque-in-athens-to-start-soon/ ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- COMMENT About to watch the full video, having seen a clip of Melanie Phillips speak on the subject.  Initial impression:  Western civilisation is finished.  Europe is finished. The British Council is in the service of Saudi Arabia. Project 'Our Shared Europe' is a joke.  Especially coming from a nation that has allowed this to develop:  Britain White Flight Muslim Enclaves in Britain Sharia Courts / No Go Areas, Britain http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/5177/no-go-zones-britain Neocon agenda British Council propaganda serves the interests of  those that do not have to live with the consequences of their demented policies -- yet. Europe permitted itself to be flooded by Muslim immigration and has dutifully permitted construction of mosques, while Athens is the sole remaining European capital that hasn't capitulated to Saudi Arabia -- and that presumably includes even Moscow, which recently opened a mosque. Greece is being bullied into constructing an Islamic edifice, despite the obvious and understandable opposition of the Greek people. Saudi Arabia is behind this mosque project and is most likely behind all the mosque projects in Europe, as radical Islamic clerics issue fatwas declaring victory of Islam over Europe. The EU is an organisation that promotes the interests of foreign entities and the destruction and Islamisation of Europe. Europe needs to reconfigure -- fast. Putin Opens New Mosque in Moscow Amid Lingering Intolerance By NEIL MacFARQUHARSEPT. 23, 2015 President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia spoke on Wednesday about Islam and the war in Syria at the opening of Moscow’s largest mosque. By REUTERS on Publish Date September 23, 2015. Photo by RIA Novosti/Reuters. Watch in Times Video » MOSCOW — Against rather long odds, including a hostile mayor, a vocal constituency irritated by Muslim rituals, and criminal rackets loath to see valuable real estate lost to charitable organizations, Moscow inaugurated a glittering, elaborate new mosque on Wednesday. It took 10 years to come to fruition, in fact. The opening was a singular event in a city where a wave of bombings by Muslim extremists that started around 2000 generated an animosity toward the faith that never entirely abated. Flanked by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, President Vladimir V. Putin used his speech at the inauguration of the mosque, which he called the biggest mosque in Europe, to emphasize that Russia would develop its own system of religious education and training to counter extremism. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/24/world/europe/putin-opens-moscows-most-elaborate-mosque.html?_r=0 Hey, Vlad, this the same Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey who declared and was convicted & imprisoned in 1998: mosques are our barracks, the domes are helmets, the minarets are bayonets and the faithful are soldiers. What a f*cking sell-out for gas pipes, Russia. And it's destined to blow up in your face spectacularly. Russia thinks it can appease Islam with 'religious education and counter-extremism training'. Just as Europe is finished, Russia is finished. Bibi, nuke the planet.  lol ꕤ

GAZA - Death Toll

GAZA

DEATH TOLL:   above 300

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon - seeking to broker truce.

Obama has supported Israel's right to defend itself against Gaza rocket fire

ISRAEL - land, sea, air and ground offensive

HAMAS - [Palestinian Islamist de facto government in Gaza (following landslide parliamentary election win)]

HAMAS - Remains defiant "as Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas travelled to Egypt and Turkey for truce talks". [Mahmud Abbas - PLO Chairman & President of State of Palestine [wikipedia]]

Total death toll to 307 Palestinians and 2 Israelis.
2,250 Palestinians and several Israelis have been injured.

U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA ... to shelter those fleeing.

• 47,000 Gazans seeking sanctuary with the agency.
• 20,000 displaced people received World Food Programme emergency food rations and food vouchers to more than
• 85,000 people estimated to require emergency assistance, as result of Israel ground offensive.

70% Gaza power outage (electricity lines from Israel were damaged)...
 

• Ground operation:  

Israel aim to "destroy Hamas network of tunnels which are used for cross-border attacks on southern Israel".

• Netanyahu (Israel) ...  admitted there was "no guarantee of 100 percent success."

"French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Abbas had urged Paris to ask Hamas allies Qatar and Turkey to pressure the group into accepting a ceasefire."

"Hamas has rejected Egyptian proposals for a truce:

1. demanding an easing of a harsh Gaza blockade imposed by Israel in 2006; and
2. the release of Palestinian prisoners."

BLOGGER SUMMARY and QUOTE SOURCE - 

Gaza Toll Passes 300 as U.N.'s Ban Heads to Region
by Naharnet Newsdesk  - 
Lebanon - here.

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OTHER

HAMAS - is a 'Palestinian Sunni Islamic organisation'  

Declared terrorist organisation by Israel, Jordan, US, EU & US western allies, Japan

COUNTRIES OPPOSED to terrorist designation:  

• Iran
• Russia
• Turkey
• China; and 
• 'many Arab nations' 

2006-onwards - Hamas has governed the Gaza Strip

HAMAS -

 'won a majority of seats in the Palestinian Parliament in the 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections and defeated the Fatah political organization in a series of violent clashes.'

FATAH - largest faction of PLO multi-party confederation.

INTERESTING ASIDE:

'Fatah wanted US Secretary of State John Kerry prosecuted before the International Criminal Court for allegedly having threatened the life of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.' [wikipedia]

US Secretary of State John Kerry recently threatened PA President Mahmoud Abbas that he would meet the same fate as his predecessor, Yasser Arafat, if he turned down Washington’s proposals for peace with Israel, a Palestinian source was quoted Sunday as saying.  [The Jerusalem Post - Feb 2014 - here.]

According to Jerusalem Post's source, Kerry's proposals for the region were met with 'shock and rejection' and the proposals allegedly involved:

creating large settlement blocs where 80% of the settlers would be gathered under Israeli sovereignty. [The Jerusalem Post - Feb 2014 - here.]

John Kerry's brother, politician Cameron Kerry (US Democrats...US Secretary of Commerce), described the US Secretary of State's position as follows:

Today, his determined work on Middle East peace is informed by an abiding sense of the need to secure Israel as a home for the Jewish people. For years since that first visit, he has engaged passionately with a wide variety of leaders in Israel, the Palestinian Territories, and across the region to understand the way to peace. He also maintained a 100-percent pro-Israel voting record during his nearly three decades in the US senate.

It is this deep involvement that has led to the conviction that Israel's long-term security requires a two-state solution – ... Israel cannot sustain occupation of the West Bank and remain both democratic and Jewish. ...

Prime Minister Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Lieberman, and Ambassador Dermer were courageous in their defense of my brother’s motives. We can all debate the effectiveness of security measures, the delineation of borders, arrangements for East Jerusalem, and other real issues among the parties, but there is no truth and no good that can come by calling into question John Kerry's good faith toward his own heritage. Israel and the Jewish people deserve better than that.  [YNet News - here.]

HAMAS, if I understand correctly, look to Tayyip Erdoğan's Turkish government, as a model government.

Religious and secular balance sought ... but unknown if this aim is universal or if it will prevail.

Alleged that Saudi Arabia has been an early financial supporter of HAMAS.

HAMAS

• 540-million-dollar government budget for 2010 

• 90% coming from "undisclosed" foreign aid

said to include funding from -

• Iran; and 
• Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood

 'Due to the Gaza blockade, Hamas still faces a financial crisis." [wikipedia] 



Criticisms of HAMAS - wikipedia - here.



[source - wikipedia - where not otherwise stated]
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COMMENT

Spent a while checking out the info regarding this region and I'm still not really all that clear.