Demonstrators to demand mosques in exchange for churches

A demonstration is being organised for the weekend by Stop Islamization of Europe (SIOE) to protest the building of large mosques in Europe while some majority-Muslim countries continue to refuse the construction of churches and other non-Islamic places of worship within their own borders.

Organisers of the event said, "No more mosques in the European Union until we see churches, temples and synagogues in Mecca," according to the US-based persecution watchdog Christian Freedom International (CFI).

The media have criticised SIOE for "intolerance" and showing a "lack of secularist globalist thinking".

Organisers of the event said that the date for the demonstration was chosen as it was the closest Saturday to Saint Nicholas Day, which is widely celebrated in the south of France.

There are currently plans to build a large mosque in Marseilles as well as in other major cities in Europe and the USA.

SIOE considers the building of such mosques to be one of the tactics used to spread Islam in the West.

An SIOE organiser for the event said, "It is known that many Islamist projects are funded by Saudi Arabia, which forbids any other religion within its borders."

The group pointed out that mosques are being built in record numbers in the western world, whilst at the same time non-Muslim places of worship are being destroyed in majority-Muslim countries like Turkey.

SIOE said that they are against Turkey and other Islamic countries joining the EU.

According to CFI, a SIOE organiser said, "The European Union proclaims itself to be a bastion of freedom and tolerance and claims such principles should extend beyond the borders of this 'Union of nations'.

"Instead we see an encroachment of Islamism on our ways of life with no reciprocity in Islamic countries, which are increasingly gravitating towards the kinds of Islamist philosophies we see in Saudi Arabia and Iran."

They pointed out that non-Islamic religious artefacts are often destroyed or vandalised in Muslim countries.

SIOE will be protesting particularly against the building of a large Mosque in Marseille. Permission to build the Mosque was granted on 23 November by the Mayor of Marseilles.

In the UK, the construction of a so-called "mega-mosque" in London has met resistance, particularly from local councillor Alan Craig of the Christian People's Alliance, who has called for an inquiry into the building of the mosque. Craig recently received a death threat on YouTube for his opposition to the mosque.

He has previously alleged that the group behind the mosque, Tablighi Jamaat, are an extremist organisation suspected of links with terrorists.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel faced a Muslim backlash recently when she said that Islamic mosque minarets should not be built higher than nearby church steeples.