The amendment for the building of the first mosque in Athens was tabled in parliament on Tuesday and will be processed with express procedures for voting at Thursday’s plenary.
The Muslim mosque will be built in Elaionas, a sparsely populated area in Athens. Its estimated cost is 964,000 euros, according to the General Accounting Office, and it will be covered by the Greek State.
The building will be a low-rise construction without a minaret and its prayer hall can accommodate 350 Shia and Sunni Muslims. It will also include additional auxiliary spaces and a parking lot.
Muslim minorities in Athens have requested that the procedures are expedited because Greece’s Muslim population has increased after the arrival of thousands of Muslim migrants and refugees.