Iceland review - 2014, Page 67

ICELAND REVIEW 65
a s I enter the humble facilities
of the Muslim Association of
Iceland in an office building in
central Reykjavík, I’m greeted by young
men playing ping pong. A moment later
the association’s chair, Ibrahim Sverrir
Agnarsson, arrives. “This is the hottest
activity here. You can see that there’s not
much terrorist plotting going on,” he
remarks sarcastically, referring to the harsh
protest that arose when plans for the first
mosque in Iceland constructed as such,
a house of worship for the up to 2,000
Muslims living here, were announced.
DIVErSE MuSlIM cOMMuNITy
There are two official Islamic associa-
tions in Iceland. The Muslim Association
of Iceland, founded by Salmann Tamimi,
originally from Palestine, in 1997, from
whom Sverrir took over as chair in 2010.
According to Statistics Iceland, the associa-
tion has 465 members. “My guess is that it
comprises people of more than 30 differ-
ent nationalities,” says Sverrir. “More than
half of its members were born in Iceland,
perhaps 40-50 to non-Muslim parents.”
Chaired by Karim Askari, originally
from Morocco, the Islamic Culture Center,
which now has 305 members, was founded
in 2008. The association runs a mosque in
Next summer, ground
will be broken for
Iceland’s first mosque,
which will serve 2,000
people. Eygló Svala
Arnarsdóttir met with
members of the Islamic
community and learned
about their views of this
major milestone and life
as a Muslim in Iceland.