ISTANBUL (RNS) — In early February, a few weeks before the beginning of Ramadan, Greece’s minister of migration and asylum, Thanos Plevris, announced a nationwide sweep to close down “illegal places of worship,” specifically mentioning more than 60 unregistered mosques that are operating in Athens. But as Islam’s holy month of fasting began on Feb. 18, Greece’s Islamic community has maintained a defiant tone.
“If Plevris wants to make his Islamophobic plans, that creates sadness and distress to the Muslims, but they will not skip prayers because of an ultra right government,” Naim Elghandour, the president of the Muslim Association of Greece, told Religion News Service.
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The crackdown on mosques, which, like houses of worship in many countries in Europe and the Middle East, must be registered with the Greek government, came as the Greek Parliament was in the process of passing a strict new immigration bill that human rights advocates say criminalizes organizations coming to the aid of migrants.
The focus on mosques was signaled when Athens police charged a Bangladeshi man who was in the country legally for opening a mosque in the neighborhood of Agios Nikolaos without a permit. Plevris invoked an immigration statute to deport the man immediately from the country.
“What happened in Agios Nikolaos will happen everywhere,” said Plevris, a member of the right-leaning New Democracy Party, in announcing the sweep. “All illegal places of worship will be shut down, with the parallel revocation …