Hudson New York
by Soeren Kern
The move comes amid thinly veiled threats of violence by thousands of Muslim residents of the city who have been pressuring the government to meet their demands for a mosque or face an uprising.
The September 7 vote to speed up construction of the first official mosque in Athens –- the only capital in the European Union without a state-funded mosque -– was supported by 198 out of 300 deputies from the left, right and center.
The mosque plan was included in an environment ministry bill regulating illegal construction. The plan calls for renovating an existing state building –- on a disused navy base- – in the industrial district of Votanikos near the center of Athens.
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