Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
Austen IvereighNovember 16, 2010

I can't help feeling that the ugly scenes in the Greek capital yesterday, when a mob descended on Muslims gathering for Eid prayers, are going to become more common in Europe. Just as Al-Qaeda scapegoats Christians in Iraq, so Muslims are becoming convenient whipping-boys for rising European anxieties over jobs and immigration.  We have been here before.

Two points in this Reuters story are worth picking out. One is that the 1m Muslims in Athens lack a mosque, so must always be "occupying" spaces such as public squares which the Greek Orthodox Christians would consider "theirs". The second is that the Archbishop of Athens supports Muslims being given land to build one on; this is not, in other words, an interreligious dispute.

 

 

 

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.

The latest from america

Cardinal Pietro Parolin told some 200,000 people in St. Peter’s Square that Pope Francis had made the message of God’s limitless mercy the heart of his pontificate.
Francis has always been known as “the pope of surprises.”
Gerard O’ConnellApril 26, 2025
“Pope Francis is the pope of the people,” Rosa de los Ríos told America in Spanish before the funeral Mass. “He is very close to the people.... That’s why he was so loved. People felt he was very close to them.”
J.D. Long GarcíaApril 26, 2025
Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy met inside St. Peter’s Basilica ahead of the funeral for Pope Francis on the morning of April 26.
Associated PressApril 26, 2025