Athens has seen its first mosque opened following almost a decade and a half of wrangling and bureaucratic delays.

Inaugural prayers were held at the mosque on Monday evening. Anadolu Agency reports that physical distancing measures were in place due to the rising number of COVID-19 cases in Greece. Further, only a handful of people were able to attend.

Athens had been the only European Union capital without a mosque. Greece’s Secretary for Religious Issues, Giorgos Kalantzis, said that the mosque’s opening “sends a clear message … of democracy, religious freedom and respect.”

Since 1979, the Greek Orthodox Church had opposed the opening of the mosque. It’s opening was thereby delayed, even after approval from the government in 2006. Anadolu reports that the 2006 decision to build a mosque with a budget of just over a million dollars faced set backs in the form of  bureaucratic hurdles, protests by far-right groups, and legal challenges.

While 97 percent of Greeks are Orthodox Christian, a Muslim minority is largely to be found along the land border with Turkey. Also, tens of thousands of Muslim workers and refugees live in Greece.

A Greek national of Moroccan origin, 49-year-old Zaki Mohammed, is the mosque’s first imam.

Umm Muhammed Umar