Refenedum against Ljubljana's Mosque
In December 2003, 30 years after the question of building a mosque in Slovenia had been raised first, the Municipality of Ljubljana adopted a spatial plan, enabling the building of an Islamic cultural centre. Shortly after this decision one of the members of the City Council, Mihael Jarc, supported by a group of voters, proposed a referendum against the spatial plan. The City Council then filed a request for constitutional review of the referendum petition with the Constitutional Court. The initiator of the referendum, Mihael Jarc, accused the then Mayor of Ljubljana of searching for by-passes to enable the construction of the mosque and violation of the rights of the 12.000 townspeople that signed the referendum petition. A group of protesters gathered in front of the City Hall, carrying banners against the mosque, calling the Mayor ‘Fatima’ and insulting her. The protesters stated that the Muslims do not need a mosque, bigger than all the Ljubljana’s churches together, since their number is not that high. On 13 July the Constitutional Court ruled that a referendum on banning the construction of Slovenia’s first mosque would be illegal.
After a series of complications and the change of the foreseen location of the mosque, in June 2008 the City Council of Municipality of Ljubljana adopted another spatial plan for an Islamic religious cultural centre. City Council member Mihael Jarc again started a referendum petition - against the 40 meters high minaret of the mosque. The Mayor found the petition incomplete and summoned the initiator to supplement the petition accordingly, which he did not do. The initiator then brought an action against the Mayor’s decision before the Administrative Court. In June 2009 the Administrative Court rejected the appeal of the City Council member, allowing the construction of the mosque to proceed. In this period banners portraying a crossed off mosque appeared in Ljubljana, inviting to a gathering against the construction of the mosque. The Municipality of Ljubljana thus filed a criminal information against unknown perpetrators due to public incitement to hatred, violence or intolerance.
Source:
Dnevnik: http://www.dnevnik.si/tiskane_izdaje/dnevnik/75733
http://www.dnevnik.si/novice/slovenija/1042259548
Slovenia Bulletin: http://slo-bulletin.blogspot.com/2004/07/finally-mosque-for-ljubljana.html
Mladina: http://www.mladina.si/tednik/200452/clanek/slo--slovenija_2004-/
24.ur: http://24ur.com/novice/slovenija/vendarle-referendum-o-dzamiji.html
Delo: http://www.delo.si/clanek/83201
Source of the image below: http://www.mladina.si
