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Paris Municipality Finally Permits Mosque Construction
PARIS, July 13 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The new Paris municipality chief, Bertrand De Lanoie, has approved the construction of a mosque northwest of Paris.
Shams el-deen Dehbel, the secretary general of Paris' al-Daawa organization, however, told AFP Thursday that the organization still cannot afford more than 10% of the money required for building the mosque - about $9.2 million.
He added that the organization would forward a call in September 2001 to all Muslims in France to make donations.
Dehbel pointed out that al-Daawa has persistently tried, over a period of ten years, to get permission from the rightist Paris municipality to tear down the old, dilapidated buildings the mosque will replace, but has been consistently denied.
The prospective mosque will include a prayer hall with enough capacity for 2000 worshippers. It will be adorned with two domes, but will not have a minaret - an essential feature of a mosque from which the adhan, or call to prayer, is traditionally given.
The mosque will include a number of activity and conference halls and a dining room for the poor and needy.
Al-Daawa, chaired by Algerian Al-Araby Kashat, conducts numerous activities that attract Muslims from throughout Paris: illiteracy-elimination classes, educational classes for children, a media center on AIDS, inter-religious conferences and a scouting team.
Kashat was placed under house arrest in 1994 by order of then interior minister Charle Pasqua. He was charged with alleged "illegal practices" - a move that raised protests from a committee of religious men, intellectuals and politicians in France.
There are about four to five million Muslims in France among a total population of 58 million. Most Muslims are Moroccan and Algerian immigrants.
Muslims in France are faced with many problems, especially in the fields of education and social rights. And there are many far-right and extremist parties in France that call for the expulsion of Arabs and Muslims - an antagonistic wave triggered by the rapid growth of the Muslim population.
Mosques in France are the most effective points of attraction to all Muslims - a phenomenon widely seen in western Europe.
France has about 3,500 mosques and prayer halls, 330 of them in Paris alone.
Muslim institutions in France include, among others, "The Islamic Organizations Union", "The Paris Mosque Islamic Institute", "The National Federal Association of French Muslims", "The Union of Muslim Students" and "Creed and Practice Association".
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