Scandinavian first multi-community mosque to be built in Copenhagen

Photo: Scandinavian first multi-community mosque to be built in Copenhagen

There are more than 100 places of worship for Muslims around Denmark, but no proper mosque with minarets, although the small Islamic sect Ahmadiyya, which is an official religious community in Denmark, built an onion-shaped mosque in 1967 in a Copenhagen suburb.

"For years, we have tried to have the mosque project take off but it has so far been vain because of internal divisions," said Sami Saidana, chairman of the Alliance of Islamic Associations, a coalition in Aarhus, 200 kilometers (125 miles) northwest of Copenhagen.

The mosque project was backed by the largest Muslim associations in Aarhus, including Turkish, Arab, Somali and Kurdish.

The 12 cartoons, first published in the Jyllands-Posten daily and later reprinted in European media, sparked furious anti-Danish protests in the Muslim world. Islamic law is interpreted to forbid any depiction of the Prophet Muhammad for fear that it could lead to idolatry, the AP reports.

There were no violent protests in Denmark, but many Danish Muslims said the crisis highlighted a lack of respect for their religion in the predominantly Lutheran country.

City authorities have been backing the mosque project but have stressed the Muslim groups themselves must finance the construction.

The alliance said it wanted to raise the money through donations, saying the construction of a mosque and a cultural center in western Aarhus would cost at least 50 million kroner (Ђ6.7 million; US$8.5 million).