Plans to build the first mosque in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, are creating a schism in the community. Opposition to the mosque has now resulted in a call for a referendum that challenges the building plans.
Mayor Danica Simsic believes a referendum would be unconstitutional, “because it questions the fundamental right to freedom of expression of faith and religious belief, the principle of equality of religious groups, and equality before the law.”
Simsic scheduled a city council session to formally call the referendum — as required by law — but she is likely to freeze the initiative pending a decision on it by the Constitutional Court.
Ljubljana’s Muslim community was first formally organized in 1967; a proposal to build a mosque followed in 1969. At the time, there were only 3,000 Muslims living in Ljubljana. Since then, Slovenia’s Islamic community has grown to include 13 officially registered groups.
Although Muslims have a constitutional right to build a mosque, no progress has been made in obtaining official permission, as first a site and then building permission must be approved.
City councilor Mihael Jarc, who originated the demand for the referendum, called a press conference in late January that included architect Fedja Kosir and the head of the right-wing Slovenian National Party (SNS), Zmago Jelincic. The meeting revealed several underlying themes that explain the apprehension some Slovenes feel about the mosque project: terrorism, foreign involvement and Muslim intolerance.
Jelincic set the tone for the debate when referred to what he called the “terrible problems with Muslims” elsewhere in Europe, citing the controversy over headscarves in French schools and police access to Islamic centers in England. “They are also shutting down Islamic centers in Italy, because they have clearly been functioning as Al-Qaeda cells.”
Popular suspicion regarding Muslim links to international terrorism remained largely underground in Slovenia until early December 2003, when Zvone Penko of the SNS said the planned mosque was “creating the infrastructure for terrorism.” Commentators dismissed Penko’s remarks as right-wing rhetoric from a marginal party, but on Jan. 6 Andrej Umek and Jozef Jeraj of the conservative Slovenian People’s Party (SLS), which belongs to the governing center-left coalition, added their voices.
Umek repeated Penko’s assertions that a mosque would establish an Al-Qaeda infrastructure, and Jeraj added that it would promote narcotics trafficking as a source of funds. The president of the SLS, Janez Podobnik, did not distance himself from his party members’ remarks until almost a week later.
Opponents of the mosque also object to what they view as external manipulation of the issue — the mosque will be funded by donors from Islamic states and will be significantly larger than Slovenia’s Muslim community originally requested.
The local community confesses that what bothers them most is the that a mosque simply contradicts their idea of what is “Slovenian,” and that building one would fundamentally change the Slovenian character of the landscape.
However, Slovenia’s religious character is hardly immutable. Only a few centuries ago, the country was mostly Protestant. Today, dozens of religious communities share space in this majority Catholic country. One more religious edifice certainly will not trigger wholesale Islamization.
Instead of a single centralized mosque, opponents argue, up to 14 separate “prayer centers” would better meet the needs of Slovenia’s Muslims.
Slovenian Mufti Osman Djogic acknowledges that he was in contact with investors from Qatar, Turkey, and Malaysia. However, he insisted, no foreign investor will be allowed to influence the center’s operations. Multiple prayer centers would be an inappropriate solution, Djogic said, because they would defeat the purpose of having a common spiritual center where Muslims could “develop their identity.”
Djogic singled out generalization as the most troubling aspect of the arguments put up against the mosque.
“It is not possible to equate Muslims in Afghanistan with Muslims in Slovenia. We have nothing in common with Afghan Muslims except that we are members of the same faith,” he said.
Djogic doubts that the referendum will be allowed to take place, but has called for a voter boycott should it go ahead. Such a referendum, he says, would put Slovenia in a bad light not only for the 51 Muslim-majority countries and 1.6 billion Muslims around the world, but all democratic states.
Conservative guesses number Slovenia’s Muslims at 48,000, but estimates range as high as 150,000. The Slovenian daily Delo featured an article in November last year that gave a largely sympathetic and accessible portrayal of the Muslim community, and explained religious terms.
Despite this, the only venue available for Muslims to gather for their religious services is Ljubljana’s Tivoli sports hall. Generally used for rock concerts and basketball playoffs, it is a makeshift arrangement at best.
The last mosque to stand in Slovenia was a ramshackle structure built in 1916 by Bosnian troops on the Austro-Italian front. The minaret collapsed in 1918 and there now remain only photographs.
In the words of the ombudsman Matjaû Hanûek it seems “all we needed was the right kind of social atmosphere, a scapegoat and a political agitator. All of our intolerance would then break out.”
Analysis of a poll in December 2003 conducted by the Faculty of Social Sciences in Ljubljana showed that 50 percent of Slovenes believed foreigners should not enjoy the same rights as Slovenes do.
“European states are much more cultivated in relations to foreigners,” scientists explained. Only two other countries proved to be less tolerant: Hungary and Switzerland. Intolerance in Slovenia rose as a consequence of a transition period, loss of jobs and worsening of people’s material position.
What need is there for a referendum? None really. Sixty percent of respondents in the poll thought it was inappropriate for a group of people to decide on the rights of individual. It is entirely possible that the referendum issue is being used as the opening shots in an early political battle for the parliamentary elections due this fall.
