Muslims celebrate Slovenia first mosque

Ljubljana, NU Online
After decades of submitting their request for a place of worship, Muslim have laid the foundation stone of Slovenia's first mosque at a former industrial site in the capital Ljubljana.<>

"We are happy to be starting this civic project in Ljubljana, which will thus become a better-known and a more pluralistic city," Mufti Nedzad Grabus, the highest representative of Slovenia's Islamic community, told the ceremony, Reuters reported.

The idea of building an Islamic cultural center in Ljubljana dates back to 1969 when the first formal request was submitted by Sulejman Kemurato, the then head of the Islamic community in Ljubljana.

The Islamic community has since faced problems in obtaining a construction permit and finding a location for the center.

In 2004, Muslims proposed a site for the mosque is in downtown Ljubljana beside the city refuse dump, but the bid for a mosque, even such a modest location, was also halted.

Right-wing politicians voiced firm opposition for the project, and nearly 11,000 signatures have been collected in opposition to the proposal.

After taking office, Ljubljana Mayor Jankovic offered a new location to build a mosque in the city center. In 2008, Islamic community offered to buy the land.

Several thousand people attended the ceremony, including Slovenia's centre-left prime minister, Alenka Bratusek, and Ljubljana Mayor Zoran Jankovic, who helped lay the first stone.

The ceremony was also attended by Bosniak member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Bakir Izetbegovic and former President of Slovenia Danilo Turk.

A handful of women in the crowd wore headscarves - an unusual sight in the Alpine ex-Yugoslav republic, a member of the European Union squeezed between Croatia, Italy and Austria.

"I am happy to attend this extraordinary ceremony sharing joy with Bosniaks and Muslims all over Slovenia and Ljubljana, who will soon get their home -- a modern Islamic cultural center and a mosque," Izetbegovic told the ceremony.

"I thank the Republic of Slovenia and Ljubljana for the support to the project by providing the necessary permits and approvals for the construction.

Editing by Sudarto Murtaufiq