Muslim Watershed Germany's Biggest Mosque Opens

It has a 34-meter minaret and a dome-shaped ceiling handpainted with floral patterns and verses from the Qur'an. Its crowning glory is a golden chandelier engraved with 99 epithets for Allah, and there is seating for 2,000 worshipers.

Germany's biggest mosque opens tomorrow in the Ruhr valley city of Duisburg in what leaders of Germany's 3 million Muslims have described as a watershed moment, bringing mosques out of the backyards and alleys and into the middle of urban life.

The multimillion-euro Merkez mosque in the working-class district of Marxloh, which was financed by private and public money, will transform the lives of the city's Muslims. Their previous meeting place was the rundown canteen of a former mining company.

For some, its consecration is a sign that the country has finally integrated its Muslims, too long considered guest workers who would one day go home, while for others it shows that Islam is taking over the religious landscape.

"How many mosques can a country cope with?" the conservative newspaper Die Welt asked in a recent commentary.

For their part, Germany's Muslims, of whom 70% are ethnic Turks, say they want their rightful place in a society they have been a part of for 50 years or more.

"The fact that we've been allowed to build a mosque is a sign for us that the community is telling us 'you're accepted'," said Mustafa Kücük, a spokesman for the Merkez mosque.

However, there have been protests in Berlin, a citizens' initiative was formed in Munich to prevent a mosque being built, and in Cologne rightwing populists used opposition to the building of a mosque to stoke Islamophobia.

Germany has 206 mosques, and more than 120 are under construction or in the planning stage.