after Kenyan Muslim son & Indonesian Muslim stepson Barack Hussein Obama wins USA Presidency this November, will Islam win over the rest of Europe since many Westerners are godless agnostics and not producing kids too, so Muslims can migrate all over Europe and USA to help save Western civilization from godlessness and moral decay? long live Barack Hussein Obama, will this be the cry of celebration of all Muslims of the world if he wins against Hillary Clinton and wins Nov. election?
more Muslim mosques for Europe and USA? Obama said he will pull out USA troops immediateky in Iraq, another victory for militant pure Islam?
Germany's Biggest Mosque Spurs Fear of `Islamization' of Europe
By Seda Sezer
April 3 (Bloomberg) -- The twin spires of Germany's largest Gothic cathedral will soon be joined on the Cologne skyline by the minarets of the country's biggest mosque.
The $23 million Ehrenfeld Central Mosque, scheduled to be completed in about two years, will help bring Islam out of the back streets and reduce the influence of radicals, Mayor Fritz Schramma says. Others see the building as a symbol of Islamic extremism and further evidence that Cologne's 120,000 Muslims, more than half of them Turkish immigrants, refuse to integrate.
``I pray at the little chapel next to the Cologne Cathedral, and my prayer doesn't become more valuable if I pray in the big cathedral,'' said Laszlu Reischl, 56, a taxi driver. ``I don't understand why they insist on building a big mosque.''
The controversy reflects Germany's struggle over almost five decades to incorporate its largest ethnic minority. Tensions were revived in February when Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Turks at a Cologne rally that ``assimilation is a crime against humanity.'' Some lawmakers who oppose mostly Muslim Turkey's bid to join the European Union accused him of preaching Turkish nationalism on German soil.
Cologne has Germany's highest concentration of Muslims, at 12 percent of the population. The new mosque will be built in the immigrant district of Ehrenfeld, about two miles from the 13th- century Cologne Cathedral.
The 53,800-square-foot building will fit 1,200 worshippers. It will replace a converted pharmaceutical warehouse that has housed the mosque since 1984 and holds about half as many people. Many spill into the parking lot during Friday prayers.
Permanently Here
``When our fathers came here, they rented the least expensive place to pray,'' says Mehmet Gunet, legal adviser to the Cologne-based Turkish Islamic Union for Religious Affairs. ``We are permanently here and we want more beautiful prayer houses.''
German architect Paul Boehm, who has worked on local churches, won a contest to design the mosque. The building consists of curved concrete walls connected to a central dome by glass to convey openness and transparency.
The two 55-meter (180 feet) minarets will be about a third as high as the cathedral spires. The complex will also house offices, restaurants and shops.
``We want to show that Muslims can live in peace in a society,'' Gunet says. ``We are coming out of hidden places and saying, `We are here, you can come and look in.'''
`Parallel Society'
The Islamic Union, a group of Imams and theologians appointed by the Turkish government's Religious Affairs authority, is awaiting final planning approval and expects construction to begin in June.
Opposition to the mosque has been spearheaded by the Pro Cologne citizens initiative, which holds five seats in the town parliament. Over the past two years, the group has circulated petitions and leaflets and held rallies against the project.
The mosque will allow local Turks to slip further into a ``parallel society,'' where many don't even speak German, says Manfred Rouhs, a Pro Cologne representative.
``It's a symbol of Islamization in Europe and the failure of integration,'' Rouhs says. ``It's a danger to our European way of living.''
About 60 percent of Cologne residents oppose a large mosque with minarets, according to a July survey by Koelner Stadt- Anzeiger, the city's biggest newspaper.
Headscarf Hairdresser
Turks first came to Germany in the 1960s, when they were invited in to help ease a postwar labor shortage. There are about 3 million ethnic Turks in Germany today.
On Ehrenfeld's main shopping street, some Turkish stores offer special services, such as the hairdresser with private rooms for women with headscarves. A barber provides Turkish tea fresh from the samovar, an urn traditionally used to heat water.
Uneasiness about the mosque reflects Germany's ``Islamophobia, racism and xenophobia,'' says Mehmet Yildirim, general secretary of the Islamic Union.
``This society didn't have much of a relationship with different cultures and religions in the past, and they have prejudices and worries,'' Yildirim says.
Mayor Schramma says the mosque will help build trust and public acceptance of Islam.
``What Erdogan meant was assimilation by force, and we don't have that here in Germany,'' he says. ``We want to end the separation, but it must not come from the top down.''
Speak German
The Islamic Union has been open to negotiation, agreeing to reduce the size of the prayer area, to conduct the prayer call through indoor speakers, and to offer half of the shops to German business owners, Schramma says.
``The next step is that the language in the mosque in time will be German,'' the mayor says. ``The second- and third- generation, which were born here, should be ready to accept that as their mother language.''
Claus Moskopp, 52, an Ehrenfeld florist, points out that the minarets won't even be as high as the nearby 243-meter Deutsche Telekom AG tower.
``We had this mosque here as it is for a long time and no one said anything, but minarets bother people,'' he says. ``It doesn't bother me because the minarets will match the city landscape.'' The greatest fear the radical Islamists should have regarding their cause, is the day the good old boys in the US of A decide to play cowboys and radicals. Where did you get this jaberwocky from. obviously another dimension Yahoo! Answers Guidlines:
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Profanity or personal attacks to any member or group(s) associated with Yahoo!Answers.
Propaganda.
Just joking... :)
But the point is, is that you shouldn't post nonsensical propaganda on Y! Answers. Very frightening indeed! next youll be telling us that our prairies will be filled with grazing camel |
