Planned Athens mosque puts Islam too much in spotlight: Greek Othodox Church

ATHENS, Sept 3 (AFP) - Officials from Greece's Orthodox Church Wednesday objected to the planned construction of a mosque near the Athens airport, siding with local residents who worry it could convey a distorted image of the country to freshly-arrived foreign visitors.

The airport at Paeania, the town outside Athens chosen to host the Greek capital's first mosque, "is the first part of Greece visitors get to see. Does the first image of Greece a foreigner gets to see have to be a Muslim mosque?" Greek church spokesman Father Epiphanios told AFP.

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Spurred on by Athens' preparations to host the 2004 Olympics, the Greek government has taken steps towards honoring a 20-year-old pledge to set up a mosque for resident Muslims.

The numbers of Muslims have swollen recently due in large part to immigration from nearby Albania and elsewhere in the Balkans, but also from considerable numbers of Nigerians, Pakistanis, Egyptians, Indians and Sudanese.

Although the sites for the Games will have their own worship facilities for different religions, the government would certainly like to boost its credentials with Muslim countries by opening the mosque while the world spotlight is on Athens.

The mosque project is bankrolled by the government of Saudi Arabia.

But Paeania's conservative city council has objected to the location of the mosque, calling the decision "arbitrary".

"We don't say no to the establishment of the mosque," Epiphanios said of the Church's objections, but added: "The council says there are no Muslims in Paeania.... The Church of Greece shares the fears and objections of these people."

Paeania's council has proposed the mosque be built in western Athens instead -- a working class area hosting the bulk of the city's Muslims.

Greece's Christian Orthodox Church claims the allegiance of some 97 percent of the population and is explicitly mentioned in the constitution as the "dominant religion".

The Church Wednesday repeated its long-standing opposition to the establishment of an Islamic cultural centre within the mosque. "We haven't understood what purpose such a centre will serve," its spokesman said.

In July an ecclesiastical source here said the cultural centre would "serve other aims" than a mosque, apparently reflecting fears of political agitation by Muslims.

The Greek foreign ministry, which has made the mosque project its own, has said it will override any objections.

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