By HA/IINA
Berlin : Germany’s Muslim community is planning to more than double the number of mosques in the country over the next few years, according to figures released by an Islamic institute on Tuesday. “We have recorded 184 projects to build new mosques, of which some are already under construction,” Salim Abdullah, of the German Institute of Islamic Archives, told AFP. “We are talking here about buildings with a dome and a minaret, which are clearly recognizable from the outside, and not the 2,600 prayer areas housed in various buildings throughout the country.”
There are now 159 mosques in Germany compared to just three in 1990, to serve a Muslim minority that numbers more than three million. The growth in the construction of mosques over the past two decades has made Germany one of the “best-equipped” countries in Europe for Islamic worship, Abdullah said. Plans to build one of the biggest mosques in Europe in the western German city of Cologne have been opposed by Christian leaders and far-right politicians. The mosque is being planned by the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DITIB), Germany’s biggest Muslim group.