The fair city of Bruges, capital of West Flanders Province, is to get its first official mosque, a building where Muslims go to worship. A large mosque will be realised in an old office building in the Sint Andries district of Bruges. Bruges city council has just approved the mosque’s permit. Until now, the Islamic community had to rent premises, but now it will have a permanent home. During the public inquiry, many objections were raised against the plans, but the mayor says that all of them could be refuted.
The Islamic centre with prayer rooms will be located in Hertogenstraat, in a former government building that once housed social security offices. ‘The Islamic community has purchased the building and we approved the permit this afternoon,’ Mayor Dirk De fauw (Christian democrat CD&V) confirmed.
First official mosque
‘This will be the first official mosque in Bruges. Muslims have been looking for a suitable space for a long time, as they are currently renting temporary premises in the Sint-Kruis district. Now that the change of function from office building to cultural centre has been approved, they can move into Hertogenstraat.’
‘There were a large number of objections, but we have addressed them all in the memorandum accompanying the environmental permit. Concerns about noise pollution? I don't see how that could be a problem, as the building will have no minaret. Moreover, the building is sufficiently insulated,’ says De fauw.
Shuttle from the station
Many objections also concerned mobility. ‘But solutions have been found for that too. Shuttle buses will run from the car park outside Bruges station to the new place of worship. Moreover, this will only be on Friday afternoons, when Islamic services take place. At other times, there will be little extra traffic.’
Vlaams Belang lodges a further objection
Far right Vlaams Belang, a party that campaigns against immigration and the growing importance of Islam in our society, has already announced that it will lodge an objection to the granting of the licence. The objection means the issue of the permit will be suspended: the permit is therefore temporarily put on hold.
Vlaams Belang’s Stefaan Sintobin, a member of the Flemish parliament, says "In our opinion, Islam has no place in our city. We will also continue to challenge the decision politically. The city council says it treated this case like any other. But in its policy programme, it explicitly stated that it would give its full support to the Islamic community in finding a suitable location. And the council also actively helped to find additional parking for the mosque. Can you still call that neutral?
‘Better one central mosque than lots of small illegal ones’
Mayor De fauw defends the council decision: “We would rather have one central mosque, in one central location and with one point of contact, than a proliferation of illegal mosques in garages or small premises throughout the city. The big advantage in Bruges is that the Islamic community here is still one involving different nationalities. We hope it can stay that way, because that is by no means the case in all cities".