Editorial photo #777700 Religion and Belief

Hidden Islam in Greece

Many belonging to the refugee and immigrants community in Greece are followers of Islam and would like to express their faith in an appropriate place of worship. It is estimated that Athens, the Greek capital, is home to over 500,000 Muslim community, mostly immigrants from Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe. The ever increasing numbers of followers of Islam are facing daily anti-islamic and anti immigration agenda of discrimination and even hate crimes. Muslims are substantially underrepresented in state controlled jobs and are generally ghettoised in certain poorer areas of the cities. Furthermore, the foundumental wish to express their faith through prayer in an appropriate place of worship is being denied. There isn't any 'official' mosque in Athens or Greece as a whole. The community of Muslims pray in basements of homes, garages and informal spaces of prayer. The fight for a public space on which to build a Mosque is still very much on. It is a fight that goes beyond the construction of a place of worship, but it embraces establishment a right to exist in the country.