Romanian Mufti Eases Concerns Over Huge Mosque

"Our plan is to build a mosque with a capacity to hold 1,000 people, a small park for kids, a fountain, a place for ablution and a small summer school for the study of the Koran. Nothing more," Mufti Iusuf Murat, head of the Islamic community in Romania, said on Tuesday.

His defensive statement follows a sharp debate in recent days in Romania over Turkey's plans to finance construction of a huge new mosque in Bucharest.

At the end of May, the government approved the allocation of 13,000 square metres in one of the central districts of Bucharest for the mosque, one of the largest in Eastern Europe. In exchange, Romania is to build a church in Istanbul.

Media reports said the mosque will be built with money from Turkey's Presidency of Religious Affairs, DIB, an organisation that has aided the construction of more than 100 mosques around the world, with construction ongoing in 38 different locations.

But the plan has drawn many adverse comments from public figures who say it will attract Islamists.

Former president Traian Basescu said the mosque posed a risk to national security as it would lure thousands of Muslims to Romania. He said that "6,000 Muslim students would come to Romania to study Islam" as a result.

The Center for Monitoring and Combating Anti-Semitism in Romania, MCA, said the mosque risked being used by Islamic fundamentalist groups as a centre for supporting terrorism and promoting anti-Semitic and anti-Christian attitudes.

Mufti Iusuf Murat on Tuesday denied these allegations and said Muslims had a right to a place of worship in the capital.

"It is our constitutional right to ask for a place of worship for our community. In Bucharest there is no purpose-built mosque but only several places of Muslim...