Islam in Greece

Although the actual numbers are uncertain, there are an estimated 370,000 Muslims in Greece, approximately 3.5 percent of the population. Most are from Albania, although there is an indigenous Muslim community in Thrace of about 120,000 persons.

In Greece, the Greek Orthodox Church is established as the primary recognized religion in Greece. Legislation passed in the 1930′s gives only the Orthodox Church the right to construct houses of worship without government approval. Until only recently, the Orthodox Church was consulted before allowing construction. This practice has apparently become less common.

Islam has been given a legal categorization that entails some of the privileges given to Judaism and the Orthodox Church. Due to the presence of a substantial indigenous Muslim (and generally Turkish-speaking) population in Thrace, there is a special agreement between the Greek and Turkish governments known as the Treaty of Lausanne, established in 1923 (US State Dept., 2004). The treaty provides language, religious and education rights to the Thracian community, but the Government claims that those outside Thrace are not covered by the agreement. Thus, Muslims in other parts of the country often have to travel to Thrace to obtain state-recognized functions such as marriage and funerals. As well, the Greek government maintains the right to appoint the religious leaders for the community in Thrace and there has been some controversy over this policy.

In Greece, public encouragement to hatred or violence against a person or a group of persons on the grounds of race, national origin or religion is criminalized. [Law No.927/1979, Art.1; Law No.1419/1984, Art.24.]

The situation has been similar for Muslims in other countries. In Greece, there have been reports of police bias towards Muslims, especially in the run-up to the Olympic Games.[[IHF, 2005.]] Greece has been roundly criticized by human rights groups and international monitoring bodies for immigration policies violating international human rights standards. Immigrants are rarely notified of their rights and are deported without access to the asylum procedure. Greece and Turkey agreed to return illegal immigrants after September 11th, and hundreds fleeing persecution are believed to have been forcibly turned back in violation of the principle of non-refoulement.[[IHF, 2005.]]

Generally the Greek government has neglected to confront the problems of the immigrant community. However, this attitude seems to be changing slowly. In the last few years an amnesty program was set up to regularize the status of undocumented immigrants. Although it has been poorly administered, the effort represents a step forward on the issue by the government.

With rising immigration, anti-immigrant sentiments has been increasing in Greece. A survey commissioned by the EU in 2003 found 83% had either very negative or quite negative attitudes towards immigrants, the highest of all the researched countries. The predominance of the Greek Orthodox church also makes many Greeks consider non-Orthodox individuals as fundamentally non-Greek. These attitudes are sometimes reflected in the rhetoric of Orthodox clergy, and official handling of this problem has been remiss due to the continuing power of the Greek Orthodox Church.