Malmö Mosque 3.37

The Malmö Mosque is the second oldest mosque in Sweden. It is located in Jägersro villastad, a neighbourhood in Husie, Malmö. It was inaugurated on 20 April 1984 and is administered by the organization Islamic Center. Adjacent to the mosque is a charter school, which is also run by the Islamic Center.There have been several attacks against the mosque, including an arson attack on 28 April 2003, which damaged the mosque and totally destroyed other buildings at the Islamic Center.HistoryThe idea of building a mosque in Malmö arouse already in the beginning in the 1960s but the zoning for the construction started in the late 1970s. The construction started in April 1983 The initiator of the project was Bejzat Becirov and as of 2013, he is still the chief executive officer. Malmö Municipality was helpful by sparing a big plot of land of 32,000 square metres. After some standard procedures such as archaeological excavations, the construction started in April 1983. The mosque was inaugurated on 20 April 1984 and the first Friday prayers were held that day.AttacksThere have been several attacks against the mosque. One of them, an arson attack in 2003, damaged the mosque and totally destroyed other buildings at the Islamic Center. The restoration cost was 17 million Swedish kronor. There were two smaller arson attacks in 2005 and the last of them cost 1 million Swedish kronor. No one was arrested for the attacks in 2003 and 2005. Between then (October 2005) and the reopening in 2004, there were at least 20 other cases of sabotage.