Romania’s Turkey-Funded Mosque Sparks Anti-Muslim Backlash
“It is my right, as a Romanian citizen, to get land where I can build a place of worship in the capital,” Mufti Murat Iusuf, leader of Romania’s approximately 64,000 Muslims, told the Washington Times.
“It also benefits the Romanian state, which can control the religious activity inside. If this project will bring any harm to Romanian citizens, we will withdraw it.”
Plans for the Turkey-funded mosque were revealed late last month after Romanian officials signed a deal with the Romanian mufti’s office to build a mosque for 1,000 worshippers, an Islamic library and a community center, on 37,000 square feet of city-owned land in northern Bucharest.
The land is being provided for the project for free, with Turkey financing the construction.
The government's support for the mosque has sparked an unexpected anti-Muslim backlash in this formerly communist country.
“The mosque will become a place of recruitment for radical Islamists, a breeding ground for terrorists,” said Tudor Ionescu, the leader of the far-right Noua Dreapta party.
“Many attacks are happening. How can we not imagine that they will reach us someday?”
The announcement has stirred intense resentment and unease in a country that was a vassal of the Ottoman Empire, the predecessor to Turkey, for five centuries until the late 1800s.
“Turkey attempts a symbolic conquest of Europe through these mosques,” Ionescu said, adding that he and his supporters might try to block the project through the city’s planning process.
“I don’t know why we are the recipients of such a ‘blessing.’”
Religious "Tolerance"
While many view the mosque construction as a test of the country’s religious tolerance, defenders haven’t had much success in changing the public’s mind.
Mufti Iusuf said he was shocked by the reaction of the public.
“I thought about the good of my country,” he said.
Prime Minister Victor Ponta said the mosque was a symbol of Romania’s acceptance of the Muslim community.
“I’m sorry that in our country there are still irresponsible people playing with so sensitive and important things such as peace, respect and interfaith solidarity,” said Ponta in a statement.
State Secretary for Religious Affairs Victor Opaschi added that Islamic extremism is counterproductive in their opposition to the project.
“Religiously integrated in the mentality of a peaceful Islam, it will be harder for them to be drawn into extremism supported by quasi-clandestine characters that might appear in our country,” said Opaschi, referring to Romanian Muslims.
The Romanian Orthodox Church supports the mosque project, stressing that the government reached an agreement with Turkey to build an Orthodox pilgrim center, including a chapel.
“The Romanian state is the one negotiating — the church is not involved in this dialogue,” said church spokesperson Constantin Stoica.
Around 10,000 Muslims live in Bucharest, where five mosques operate.
The oldest was built in 1906. Different Islamic organizations built the other four after the fall of communism in the late 1980s.
