A unanimous city council decision in Haderslev has elected to treat the building of a mosque like any other construction project.
The council has thereby reversed a decision taken by its own planning and environmental committee, which had rejected the building of a mosque. Now the only restriction is that the minaret cannot be 19 metres tall as planned, but only 12 metres.
It was the left-wing party Enhedslisten who brought up the case with the city council, as it believed Muslims had been exposed to differential treatment.
Worried about Kuwaiti influence
The prospect of a mosque in Haderslev has previously been met with resistance from the parties Dansk Folkeparti and Socialdemokraterne. Since the financing of the mosque will partly stem from Kuwait, the local politicians are worried that radical Islamists will impact the religious direction of the mosque.
But Dansk Folkeparti agrees that the applicants behind the mosque should be treated like all other applicants.
“Everybody should be treated equally according to the law,” city council member Thies Mathiasen (DF) told DR Nyheder.
“We only want to make sure that the regulations are being followed and therefore avoid dispensation to a 19-metre minaret.”
Islamic Center Haderslev is currently using a warehouse situated in an industrial quarter as its mosque. It is the same warehouse that the centre wishes to rebuild into a mosque.
The reversed decision from the city council has come as a surprise to the Islamic Center in Haderslev.
“We are completely speechless. This means a lot to me, the younger generation and the elderly in the area,“ spokesperson Qaiss Shouker told DR Nyheder.
