Greece Cracks Down on Illegal Mosques but Skepticism Persists
9th April 2026
2026 to identify and shut down unlicensed or illegal places of worship, focusing heavily on the approximately 60 informal mosques in Athens and the wider Attica basin and promising to deport those responsible for operating them.
Authorities have linked the initiative to national security, citing concerns over extremist ideologies and past security challenges. Unlike in much of Europe, muftis and imams in Greece are appointed by the state, and funding from foreign governments is forbidden. It is partly for this reason that Greece does not experience Islamic terror attacks like much of Western Europe, despite there being over 300 mosques in the Western Thrace region on the border with Turkey and the Dodecanese Islands, where over 150,000 Muslims have resided since the time of Ottoman rule.
While Athens was once the only European Union capital without a mosque, the official Votanikos Mosque opened in 2020, without minarets or loudspeakers. Being able to accommodate only around 300 to 350 people, the Votanikos Mosque evidently cannot serve the 200,000 to 300,000 Muslims residing in Athens, contributing to why illegal mosques in basements, apartments, and warehouses popped up outside the control of the state.