When it comes to building mosques, Finland is not any different from other European countries in terms of opposition that such projects receive either from the side of the officials or the public. The Helsinki Grand Mosque project has been on-going since 2015 and now once again, debates over funding have put a spanner in…
After the Swiss ban on minaret construction, many other European countries wonder how they would decide in case of a referendum, and they claim almost unanimously that they would choose to ban the ban. In the Finnish capital of Helsinki, mosques and their minarets seem to be welcome. This is the view of Helsinki’s city…
So far there is only the one purpose-built mosque in Finland, the Järvenpää Mosque, which was erected in the 1940s. The timber-framed building also includes a small minaret, but as in most non-Muslim countries, the call for prayer from the minaret is not permitted. The Järvenpää Mosque belongs to the Islamic congregation of Finland’s Tatars,…
{Greek nationals, whose mother-tongue is Turkish, are not allowed to identify themselves as Turks. Despite Greek reforms, Turkish-speakers still look to Turkey for relief.} By John Brady Kiesling Greek courts have refused since the 1980s to allow Greek citizens whose mother tongue is Turkish to identify themselves as Turks in official contexts. Legally and morally…
