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.
The first decision to build a mosque in Athens is taken 17 years before. The delays has been a constant source of tension between two different worlds. The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation has been highly critical of these delays, with the Minister of Culture, Education and Religious Affairs Aristides Baltas stressing that these delays are used to defame Greece.
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 "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 appealed to stop the construction of the first Mosque in Greece.