More than 100 Muslims rushed to Yeni Mosque in Thessaloniki early Wednesday morning to pray on the occasion of the end of the Ramadan fast, the Eid al-Fiktr.
After 102 years, the site of the monument was opened for a few hours in order for the Muslims of the city to perform their religious duties.
The imam of the Athens mosque, Greek national of Egyptian origin Taha Abdelgaglil, arrived in Thessaloniki for the specific ceremony, read the prayer in Arabic, delivered the sermon in Arabic and Greek, spoke about the meaning of the celebration and wished health and longevity.
The decision to open the mosque for prayers was recently announced by the General Secretariat of Religious Affairs.
The Yeni Mosque, designed by Italian architect Vitaliano Poselli in 1902, was initially constructed for the city’s Dönmeh community, who were crypto-Jewish converts to Islam. However, following the departure of the Dönmeh during the population exchange between Greece and Turkey, the building was repurposed as the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki in 1925. Today, it serves as an exhibition center.
Perhaps a whiff of double standards here? Whenever an Orthodox church in Turkey is repurposed there is a massive outcry from Greece but it’s OK for Greece to repurpose a Mosque as a museum? I am not in anyway religious but I respect those who are. The state, whether Turkey or Greece, should keep its hands off religious buildings and let their fate be decided solely by followers of that religion.
you simplify the issue and the long history.