JEDDAH, 21 May 2003 — Greek Muslims, who have three Islamic radio stations and newspapers, will soon launch their own TV station, according to a three-member team of Greek muftis currently in Saudi Arabia.
“With the first Islamic TV station and other media, we hope to campaign effectively against the bad publicity Muslims in the West have been getting,” Metso Tzamali, a member of the team, told a press conference at the Greek Cultural Center here yesterday.
“The Sept. 11 attacks and the subsequent smear campaign against Islam have not adversely influenced the small but growing Muslim minority in Greece. On the contrary, the minority Muslim community has become strong and is slowly but steadily growing,” Tzamali said.
Tzamali, mufti of Komotini, who is accompanied by Mohamed Sinikoglu, mufti of Xanthi, and Muhammet Serif, mufti of Didimotiho, said the country’s Muslim community numbered 130,000 in a total population of 10.5 million and was very concerned about terrorism and violence in different parts of the world which are blamed on Muslims.
All three muftis are judges of the country’s Shariah court, which resolves the problems of Muslims. While Serif obtained his Islamic education in Thessalonica, the two other muftis obtained their Islamic degrees from Madinah more than 25 years ago.
Emphasizing that there was no discrimination against Muslims in overwhelmingly-Christian Greece, Sinikoglu said terrorism and violence blamed on Muslims had not soured relations between the two communities. “Like Muslims the world over, we condemn all terrorist and violent acts,” he said.
