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And three main roads in Paris were closed this Friday as Muslims went out in droves for the weekly prayer.
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PARIS — French Muslims' complaints of lacking stately and spacious mosques to accommodate the faithful becomes self-evident during the holy fasting month of Ramadan when worshippers are forced to pray in the streets.
"We don't have enough room for worshipers in ordinary days let alone Ramadan, which see more and more Muslims flocking to mosques for Tarawih prayers," Al-Hajj Amadou, an official with the Fatah Mosque in Paris' 18th district, told IslamOnline.net.
"What makes the matter worse is that our mosque is located in a commercial district teeming with Muslims, who become more observant during Ramadan."
On last Friday, lines of worshipers caused temporary traffic jams in a number of Parid districts after, finding no room inside their small mosques, they had to perform the first Friday of Ramadan in the streets.
The Paris mayor had to close three roads across the capital until Muslims crammed along streets and pavements completed their congregational prayers.
Ziyad, 34, said this Ramadan an increasing number of Muslims are preferring to pray at mosques.
"This is my third Ramadan in France and I can say that it is the first to see such a massive number of worshippers," said the Moroccan.
"To my way of thinking, the recent media campaigns against Islam and Muslims, like the controversial cartoons of our beloved prophet, are motivating Muslims to cling to their identity and religion."
Inappropriate
Locals said they have got accustomed to such scenes over the years, heaping the blame on authorities.
"Authorities have not provided appropriate places for the followers of the second religion in France," said Orlie, who lives nearby Omar Ibn Al-Khattab mosque in the 11th district in Paris.
Calls to facilitate the construction of stately mosques in France, home to a sizable minority of nearly six million Muslim, have largely fallen on deaf ears.
Rightists stand as the main roadblock and derail strenuous efforts made by Muslims to have a proper place of worship just like other communities in France.
In Montreuil, plans for building a modern-style mosque was halted after a lawsuit won by far-right politicians.
The building of a stately mosque in the Mediterranean port city of Marseille — home to 250,000 Muslims — was frozen in April following a similar lawsuit.
Muslims have only 1,500 prayer houses, most of which are housed in small, modest halls, often described as "basement mosques."
France's first mosque, the Great Mosque of Paris, opened in 1926 in Paris' Latin Quarter. It was built with help from Algerian donors.
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