PRI: Public Radio International

Greece a difficult place for followers of non-Orthodox Christian faiths

Wed, 08 Aug 2012 10:57:00 -0500

Greece has a difficult relationship with followers of minority faiths. In order to build a place of worship, they must get government permission and, for more than 100 years, no mosques have been allowed. But Muslims aren't the only ones who have difficulty practicing their faith.

leon

Thu, 09 Aug 2012 06:41:26 -0500

hmmm I wonder why no mosques are built in Greece? Could it be that Greece was under 400 years of Islam tyranny and enslavement? Can anyone honestly blame these pple if they rather not see a minaret in their skyline after all they have been through all in the name of some violent desert prophet?

pwp

Thu, 09 Aug 2012 10:17:10 -0500

How many Christian Churches are there in Saudi Arabia to serve the huge communities of foreign ( legal ) workers?
zip, zilch, nada, zer0000000
spare me the tears

Thu, 09 Aug 2012 17:18:17 -0500

I feel we are unfairly being criticized by those who would destroy the Greek culture. Islam is the only large "religion" that claims that the result of murdering an innocent person is entry to Paradise. Islam is inimicable with democracy and civil rights.b7c

Paul

Thu, 09 Aug 2012 22:03:53 -0500

This article lacks any historical insight as to why the Orthodox Church is so intertwined with Hellenism. If PRI wanted to paint a more balanced picture, this story would have explained that historically, the Orthodox church was what kept Greek culture, the language and the Christian identity of the Greek people alive through four centuries of oppressive Ottoman rule. The Greek church was also instrumental in fomenting revolution against Ottoman rule, which led to the founding of the modern Greek state. And while there may not yet be a mosque in Athens to serve the hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants that strain the country's resources, there are over 300 active mosques in northeastern Greece, where a majority of the country's Greek Muslim citizens live...so much for portraying Greece as an "intolerant" country.

kojak

Thu, 09 Aug 2012 22:30:10 -0500

Now that the muslim brotherhood has taken over Egypt, the christians are being killed and forced out, where is the religious monitoring there or in Lybia or in Tunisia as all the orthodox, and catholic christians are now not welcome and the churches closed on a daily basis.

Colin Nicolson

Sun, 12 Aug 2012 03:13:19 -0500

Codswallop Leon! Yet another myth preventing Greece from comint to terms with the modern world.The Ottoman Empire was very tolerant of other religions.At a local level Greeks were ruled by their priests and probably never saw a Turk, while in Istanbul ethic Greeks and Slavs virtually ran the Empire