Iceland review - 2014, Page 68

66 ICELAND REVIEW
(33-foot) tower. The construction is estimated to cost ISK 250-
350 million (USD 2-3 million) and Sverrir is set to travel abroad
to raise funds. “I will approach the Islamic Council in Mecca
but hope to raise the funds from individual contributions.” He
explains that donating to charity is one of the five pillars of Islam.
“I think it shouldn’t be too difficult to raise funds for the building
of a first mosque in a country.”
“The mosque will include a prayer hall, library and information
center and probably a space for a restaurant. My hope is that the
mosque can serve as a statement of liberalism, open to all, a place
where a North African laborer can pray next to a U.S. business-
man.” Sverrir stresses that non-Muslims will be welcome to visit
and learn about Islam at the mosque, hoping that it will become a
tourist attraction. When asked whether nearby residents should be
concerned about calls to prayer, Sverrir shakes his head. “There’s
no reason for us to be shouting at an empty bus station.”
VOcAl PrOTEST AND WIDESPrEAD SuPPOrT
Few but loud individuals have harshly protested the building of
the new mosque, including Skúli Skúlason, who runs the blog
hrydjuverk.is (‘terrorism.is’), the organization Protest the Mosque
in Iceland (Mótmælum mosku á Íslandi), and former Mayor of
Reykjavík Ólafur F. Magnússon, who wrote in an article in daily
newspaper Morgunblaðið on July 10 that the mosque may jeopar-
dize “our national security and culture.”
“What Skúli and these guys are most concerned about is that
the mosque will be in prime firing range of Ártúnsbrekka,”
laughs Sverrir of a major traffic road leading out of the capital.
He describes Islamophobia as an industry, operated from the
United States, spreading “disgusting” propaganda about the reli-
gion that Islamophobes in Iceland have copied. “Honor killings
could never be justified in the Quran, it clearly states that murder
is illegal,” Sverrir stresses, explaining that it is beyond him how
terrorists can claim that they are Muslims acting in the name of
Islam. However, Sverrir points out that he senses a lot more sup-
a building owned by the Islamic Foundation of Iceland known
as Ýmishúsið, located in Reykjavík near the landmark building
Perlan.
This makes Muslims the fourth largest religious group in
the country after Christians (all congregations combined),
Ásatrúarfélagið, which honors the old Norse gods, and Buddhists.
However, the statistics only take into account registered members
of religious associations. “The number of Muslims in Iceland
has increased significantly since I moved here in 1971—I think
we were seven at the time—and we now estimate that there are
between 1,500 and 2,000,” says Salmann. Quite a few Muslims
choose to be members of neither association, among them Dyah
Anggraini, originally from Indonesia, who moved to Iceland in
2008 to start a family here with her Icelandic husband. “It’s not
that I have anything against either of the two associations but I
don’t really understand the purpose of organized religion. I have
a personal relationship with God,” she explains.
NEW lANDMArk IN rElIgIOuS lANDScAPE
After 13 years of lobbying, on September 19, 2013, the Reykjavík
City Council formally approved the Muslim Association of
Iceland’s application for free land for a mosque, in line with
existing legislation. At the same time, while welcoming cultural
diversity, the City Council recommended that now that four
religious associations—Ásatrúarfélagið, the Russian Orthodox
Church, the Buddhist and the Muslim Associations of Iceland—
have been provided with free land for houses of worship exempt
from property tax, the Icelandic parliament rid municipalities of
this financial burden with a legal amendment.
“The mosque is now on the city’s land-use plan,” excites
Sverrir. “We will launch a design competition and the following
six months will be dedicated to the look of the mosque. Our goal
is to break ground next summer.” Located centrally in the capi-
tal in a green area, the mosque will measure 800 m2 (8,600 ft2),
with the roof being no higher than nine meters with a ten-meter
chair of the islamic culture center karim askari (left)
and imam ahmad seddeeq outside the center’s
mosque on skógarhlíð. next to them, children
play in a jumping castle as the eid al-adha
celebrations come to a close.
RELIGION