Oasis Foundation, the organisation co-ordinating a project to build a grand mosque in Helsinki, is not intent on abandoning the much-discussed project despite a recent setback.
“We’re not giving up or abandoning the project,” Pia Jardi, the chairperson of the Finnish Muslim Union and a project manager at Oasis Foundation, asserted in an interview with Uusi Suomi on Thursday.
Oasis Foundation announced yesterday that it will withdraw its proposal from the the Helsinki City Board. The Urban Environment Division of Helsinki on Tuesday decided unanimously to recommend that the city board should not reserve a land plot for the proposed mosque and activity centre.
The complex would have been built on an old industrial site in Hanasaari, Helsinki.
“We’re simply not presenting it for consideration as it seems absolutely useless and a waste of time after the division’s decision,” commented Jardi.
She pointed that the decision to withdraw the proposal will allow the foundation to take into account all of the observations made by the Urban Environment Division.
Jardi has revealed that the foundation will also consider other locations for the grand mosque. “If Helsinki doesn’t have the willingness, why should we help [it] with this kind of a project,” she retorted to Helsingin Sanomat on Thursday.
She added to Uusi Suomi that it is nevertheless possible “and indeed likely” that the foundation will file another application to reserve a land plot for the complex in Helsinki.