SPIEGELONLINE INTERNATIONAL: After much controversy, Cologne City Council finally voted in favor of building Germany's largest mosque in the city. The opposition of a local far-right group wasn't enough to stop plans that will change the city's historic skyline forever.
Cologne's skyline is not just any skyline. Silhouetted against the sky is the cathedral, the most famous gothic church in Germany. After a decision by Cologne's City Council, it will be joined by the country's largest mosque.
Thursday at Cologne's City Hall, a crowd of demonstrators faced off. To the right of the entrance stood some 30 odd anti-mosque protesters carrying signs depicting stylized mosques with big red lines struck through them. To the left about 100 people voiced their support for the mosque's construction. Neither need really have bothered: the outcome was almost certain.
All parties except the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) and the extreme right anti-mosque initiative Pro Cologne voted in favor of building the mosque, which will be Germany's largest. Cologne Mayor Schramma, who has gone back and forth on the issue, in the end voted against his own CDU party in favor of the mosque's construction Thursday.
The new mosque will now be built on a site in Ehrenfeld, an industrial section of Cologne where there is currently a working mosque operating out of an old factory. "They can start tearing down the old factory building tomorrow," Josef Wirges, the local council member for Ehrenfeld and member of the Social Democrats (SPD) told SPIEGEL ONLINE.
The structure will cost between €15 billion and €20 billion, financed by private donations from more than 800 groups in Germany. Construction will be completed in 2010 by the locally based Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DITIB), which has close ties to Ankara. Go-Ahead for Germany's Biggest Mosque >>> rbn -- with wire reports and reporting by Carolin Jenkner in Cologne | August 29, 2008
WELTONLINE:
Köln und die große Moschee im Schatten des Doms: Der Stadtrat hat dem umstrittenen Bau der ersten Zentralmoschee in Köln zugestimmt. Die Fehden um die "islamische Gefahr" werden dennoch weitergehen. Die Diskussion um den Bau gab der radikalen Protestpartei "Pro Köln/Pro NRW" solchen Auftrieb, dass sie ins Stadtparlament einzog. Nächstes Ziel: der Landtag >>> Von Till-R. Stoldt | 30. August 2008
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