Walloon region of Belgium officially recognises mosques

From Wikinews, the free news source you can write!

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Belgium

Other stories from Belgium

• 10 December 2009: 2009–10 UEFA Champions League: Round of 16 field set
• 19 November 2009: Herman Van Rompuy named as first permanent EU President
• 1 September 2009: Kimi Räikkönen wins 2009 Belgian Grand Prix
• 22 July 2009: UEFA Euro 2008: March 24th qualification game roundup
• 22 July 2009: Euro 2008 Qualification: Poland vs. Belgium

...More articles here

Location of Belgium

To write, edit, start or view other articles on Belgium, see the Belgium Portal

Belgium's French-speaking Walloon region has officially recognised 43 mosques, thus giving Islam the same rights as accorded to other religions in the region. They will be permitted to build minarets on their mosques, and Imams will be added to the government payroll, as is the case - for example - with Catholic priests.

Moves are afoot to apply for official recognition of a number of mosques in the other two main regions of Belgium: Brussels, and Flemish-speaking Flanders.

Most of the immigrant population in Belgium are Muslims, but until now the mosques were not yet officially recognised. The traditional faith in Belgium is Roman Catholicism. Other minor faiths are Protestant Christianity, Orthodox Christianity, and Judaism.

Buddhists also recently applied for official recognition as a religion in Belgium.

Sources

• "Official recognition is granted to 43 mosques". New Europe, June 23, 2007
• Vedat Denizli "Belgium grants official recognition to 43 mosques". Today's Zamam, June 21, 2007
• "Religion in Belgium". Wikipedia, June 24, 2007
  

Share this:

This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable. Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators. Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections. Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.