Greece:After Rioting, Muslims Play Victim Card

After days of rioting in Greece over a rumor of a Koran being desecrated Muslim leaders there do what Muslims do the best. They played the victim card and said that they are marginalized. The bottom line is that if Muslims are not allowed to dominate a country they will complain that they are marginalized or oppressed. My advice is for non-Muslims to live life as they know it, let them whine.

May 26, 2009
Greek muslims 'marginalised'
ATHENS - RELIGIOUS elders in Athens fear that the city's long-marginalised Muslims are a 'timebomb' waiting to explode after a sudden eruption of violence offered a glimpse at their sense of anger and frustration.

Two days of clashes late last week, which broke out during a rally by around 1,000 Muslims in the Greek capital, followed claims that a police officer had torn up an Iraqi migrant's pocket Koran excerpt during an identity check.

More than a dozen people were injured, scores of cars vandalised and a handful of shops had their windows smashed. Police made 46 arrests.

Although the lid was soon placed on the violence, Muslim leaders who condemned the unrest also warned the state must act quickly to reverse the sense of marginalisation.

Thousands of Muslims from Arab nations, Africa and the Indian subcontinent now live and work in Athens, often scraping by with meagre wages and in squalid accommodation.

A long-standing grievance is that despite years of promises the Greek state has provided no official prayer sites, forcing the faithful to set up makeshift mosques in rented flats and disused warehouses.

Naim El Gadour, chairman of the Muslim Union of Greece says there are over 100 unlicensed prayer sites in Athens and hundreds of thousands of Muslims, not counting Albanians and illegal migrants.

A staunchly Orthodox state with bitter memories of four centuries of Ottoman Turkish rule, Greece currently offers sanctioned Muslim religious sites only near its northeastern border with Turkey where a Muslim minority of Turkish origin lives.

All traces of Islam were eradicated in Athens in the early 19th century when Christianity was restored, and bureaucratic wrangling and opposition from church leaders and mayors have stalled plans for a mosque and cemetery.

'We see no mosque, we see no cemetery, basically they are making fools of us,' says Abu Mahmoud, a Moroccan who has lived in Greece since 1985. 'The situation in Athens is getting worse because of the economic crisis which is hitting foreigners the hardest, and the city centre has become a jungle as a result.' -- AFP

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Greece:Muslim Riot~Video

Here is a video showing the recent Muslim riots in Greece. The good news is that the Greek police did not retreat like the police in the UK did.

Hat tip to Elliot.

Greece:Islamic Prayer Center Firebombed

In this follow up to the "Muslims Clash With Greek Police for Second day" article, non-Muslims strike back. Now it is just a matter of time until the Muslims there play the victim card.

Athens Muslim group attacked in wake of violent protests

At least three people were hospitalized in Athens on Saturday morning after a firebomb attack on a shop used as a Muslim prayer center for immigrants

Police said unknown assailants smashed the shop's windows and poured gasoline inside before igniting it, a police source said.

The attack came a day after clashes between more than 1,000 Muslim protesters and Greek police in central Athens prompted by the alleged desecration of a copy of the Koran by police.

The march was organized by leftist, immigrant and anti-racism groups. Violence broke out after the rally when a group of protesters began throwing projectiles at police.

Immigrant groups allege that an Athens police officer tore apart and stepped on the Koran of a coffee shop customer during a police check in central Athens late Thursday. Police said they have launched an investigation into the incident.

Some 46 protesters were arrested Friday during the clashes, while seven Muslim immigrants and seven policemen were hospitalized for treatment. More than 70 cars and around a dozen businesses were damaged in the clashes, which sent tourists running for cover in nearby hotels.

Muslim hardships

Many Muslims in Athens use abandoned factories and converted coffee shops as makeshift prayer houses. Some Muslim groups have complained of police brutality and poor treatment by officials in the past.

Athens is the only European capital which does not have a proper mosque or cemetery to serve its more than 300,000 Muslim residents, mainly from various parts of northern Africa and Pakistan.

At present, the only operating mosques in Greece are in the north-eastern region of Thrace, home to some 100,000 Muslims.

Larger protests on Thursday saw around 1,500 Muslim immigrants rally before the march degenerated into violence with police resorting to tear gas to disperse the crowds.

dfm/dpa/AFP/Reuters
Editor: Andreas Illmer

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Muslims Clash With Greek Police for Second day

This is a follow up to the "Muslims Rioting in Greece" story. Even though approximately 100 demonstrators threw objects at the police, the leftists are still standing strong with the "offended" Muslims.

Muslims clash with Greek police for second day
22 May 2009, 2201 hrs IST, AFP


ATHENS: Muslim immigrants clashed again with Greek police on Friday during a second day of protests in Athens over charges that officers tore up a Koran during an identity check of immigrants.

Nearly 1,000 Muslims rallied in the city's central Omonia square in a demonstration organised by leftist, immigrant and anti-racism groups.

Several men in their 20s and 30s from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Syria and Somalia marched to parliament and the interior minister shouting "Allah! Allah!" and slogans in Arabic.

The Greek capital's main streets were closed amid a heavy police presence.

Violence broke out at the end of the demonstration as around 100 protesters threw projectiles at police, who tried to disperse the crowd with tear gas.

"Immigrants are outraged. The incident on Wednesday was the straw that broke the camel's back," Vasso Akrivou, a member of the group Expel Racism, said.

Around 1,500 Muslim immigrants launched a demonstration on Thursday one day after hearing word of an incident involving the Koran.

Demonstrators said that when police stopped four Syrian immigrants to check their papers on Wednesday, one of the officers tore up a Koran and stamped on it.

The Greek police has opened an investigation into the allegations.

Police also used tear gas to disperse protesters who were throwing dustbins and stones on Thursday while a car was damaged during the clashes.

Greece is faced with a daily influx of immigrants from Asia via Turkey, many of whom are trying to reach Western Europe. Rights groups have complained of cases of police brutality against immigrants.

Interior ministry figures for 2008 show that more than 146,000 illegal immigrants were arrested in Greece, of whom 57,000 had arrived from Turkey.

The total number of illegal immigrants living in Greece is estimated to be 250,000, most of them Albanian nationals.

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Muslims Rioting in Greece

In the past Muslims have rioted in Belgium, Denmark and France. So why not add Greece to that list? Hopefully those that support Muslim immigration will wake up before it is too late.

Hat tip to the European Alliance for Rational Thought.

Muslims protest alleged Koran destruction in Greece
Fri May 22, 2009
By Dina Kyriakidou

ATHENS (Reuters) - Hundreds of Muslims marched through central Athens on Thursday, damaging shops and cars, to protest what they said was the destruction of a Koran by a Greek policeman.

"The president of the Muslim Union of Greece, Naim Elghandour, said that during police checks at a Syrian-owned coffee shop on Wednesday, an officer took a customer's Koran, tore it up, threw it on the floor and stomped on it.

In response, about 1,000 immigrants, many from Syria, Pakistan and Afghanistan, marched to central Omonia Square, smashing several shop windows and five cars, a police official said.

Police sources said an internal investigation was launched into the Koran incident.

"We were told by police we will be given the name of the policeman who did this so we can press charges," Elghandour said.

Thousands of immigrants, many from Muslim countries, cross into Greece illegally every year seeking a better life in the West. Trapped in legal limbo, most have no jobs, live in squalid conditions and are often arrested for minor crimes.

On May 9, members of a rightist group attacked immigrants in Athens, sending at least three to hospital. Rights groups accuse predominantly Orthodox Christian Greece of not doing enough to protect immigrants.

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