The website of Islam Online, an Islamic news portal operated by Muslim Brotherhood leader Youssef Qaradawi, has announced the construction of a large new Saudi-funded mosque in Goteborg, Sweden:
After years of praying in halls and basements, Muslims in the Swedish city of Goteborg are rejoicing as this year’s Ramadan bings them closer to their distant dream of a stately mosque with a dome and minarat.” This year’s holy month of Ramadan brought good news for us in Goteborg,” Abdulghani Hakki, president of the Muslim Association in the city, told IslamOnline.net. “The construction of the stately mosque Muslims have long dreamed of will begin in the next few weeks,” he added. After two years of planning, the mosque construction will start thanks to Saudi funding. “The construction licence was initially granted in 1996,” recalled Hakki, also a member of the Islamic Awqaf in Sweden which will supervise the building. He noted that the mosque idea was first tabled in the 1980s by a Turkish group before later being championed by the Islamic Awqaf. But it was last year’s agreement with Saudi Arabia to finance the mosque project that paved the way for the long-cheriched dream to turn real. The mosque, to be established on the bank of Gota river, is a traditional place of worship with a dome and a crescent minarat. Designed by Swedish archticts, the mosque will combine both the Islamic spirit and innovation of modern architecture.The 5000-meter mosque will accomodate about 1200 people.
Although there is no definitive link to the Muslim Brotherhood in this report, it should be noted that an organization known as the Islamiska Förbundet i Göteborg (Islamic Society of Goteborg) is a member of the Islamiska Förbundet I Sverige (Islamic Society of Sweden) which, in turn, is the Swedish member of the Federation of Islamic Organizations in Europe (FIOE), the umbrella group representing Muslim Brotherhood organizations in Europe. Further research is required in order to establish a definitive link between this mosque and the Brotherhood and to ascertain whether or not the “Muslim Association” identified is, in fact, the same group as the Islamic Society of Goteborg.