Foundation Laid for First Mosque in Slovenia

The foundation stone for what will be Slovenia's first mosque was laid by prime minister Alenka Bratusek on Saturday.

The foundation stone for what will be Slovenia's first mosque was laid by prime minister Alenka Bratusek on Saturday. The event happened 44 years after the initial request to build it was made.

The laying of the stone, in the presence of a government minister from Qatar which is helping to fund the project, was a "symbolic victory against all forms of religious intolerance", said Bratusek, adding that Europe would not be as culturally rich without Islam.

British College to Overturn Ban on Muslim Face Veils
Following widespread protests, one of Britain's biggest colleges revealed that it will be overturning its decision to ban Muslim face veils

About 10,000 attended the ceremony in Ljubljana, according to an AFP photographer at the event.

Building will begin in November and should be finished by the end of autumn 2016. The cost of the project, which includes a Muslim cultural centre, is 12 million euros ($16 million), 70 percent of which will be met by the Qataris.

The first request to build a mosque in Slovenia was filed in 1969. In recent years the project has run into difficulty over the issue of land, but was eventually solved when the council in Ljubljana sold an area ready for construction to the Muslim community.

Miss World Pageant Faces Protests From Indonesian Muslim Hardliners
About 150 Islamic hardliners protested in the Indonesian capital Jakarta against the Miss World beauty pageant. This is the latest outburst of anger about the contest in the Muslim-majority nation.

However, opponents of the mosque have twice tried to halt the project, once in 2004 and again in 2009, by asking for a referendum. The requests were denied each time by the constitutional court.

Some 47,000 Slovenians declare themselves Muslim, in a country of two million people. A 2002 census found that it was the second largest religion in the country behind Catholicism, which has 1.1 million followers. Muslim groups claim there are around 80,000 Muslims in the country.

Majority of Muslims Want Their Countries to Implement Sharia Law
While a majority of Muslims want their countries to implement the controversial sharia law, there is a lack of agreement about the exact interpretation of the law and how it should be applied.

There was a previous mosque in Slovenia, before it was an independent country, but it was abandoned and destroyed after World War One.

Source-AFP