Last week Cologne's city council voted in favor of a new and controversial mosque. It will be the largest in Germany when it is complete. According to an article in Spiegel Online, it will cost between 15 and 20 billion dollars, and it will be completed by 2010. The opposition to the new construction has been intense, and the resistance of the right-wing was allegedly based on how to best “integrate” the Turkish population in Germany. According to information from Deutsche Welle, there were some 45 mosques in Cologne, and the right-wing Pro-Cologne Movement argued that this was a sufficient number for the 120,000 Muslims living in the city. Those mosques, however, were mostly abandoned factories and shops. Construction is being carried out by the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs, and as a New York Times Article reports, “Germans are starting to ask how – or even if – the 2.7 million people of Turkish descent here can square their religious and cultural beliefs with a pluralistic society…” In short, though, since the minarets of the new mosque will apparently be only one-third the height of the towers of Cologne's famous cathedral and the call to prayer will not be over the loudspeakers, the complaints will necessarily be short lived, and soon the mosque will be a house of worship and even a tourist attraction.
This picture is from the International Herald Tribune/Henning Kaiser/AFP
The picture of the mosque is from SpiegelOnline/DPA