Activists in Athens Torment Muslims as They Pray; Shout Obscenities, Throw Eggs, Wave Greek Flags

The Reuters website reports today (November 19, 2010) that dozens of far-right activists and local residents in Athens threw eggs and taunted hundreds of Muslim immigrants this week, as they gathered to pray in a central square for Eid al-Adha, surrounded by a protective cordon of riot police.

Greece has a growing Muslim community, and tensions between locals and incomers have run high in some Athens areas such as Attiki Square, the scene of an incident on November 16.

Athens' Muslim community is without an official mosque, and prayers are usually held at cultural centers or community halls or private apartments around the city. The Muslim community in Greece is estimated at about one million, in a country where most people are Greek Orthodox Christians.

While the Muslims prayed, some Greeks shouted obscenities from their balconies and waved Greek flags. Leaflets that depicted pigs -- an animal Muslims consider unclean -- were scattered across the square.

The only mosques in Greece are located in the northeastern region of Xanthi in the province of Thrace near the European border of Turkey, where most of Greece's Muslims live.