GERMANY: Cologne priest raises funds to build mosque
GERMANY: Cologne priest raises funds to build mosque
Cologne priest, Fr Franz Meurer, has led his parish to raise funds for the construction of Germany's biggest mosque which will be built in a city most famous for its Catholic cathedral.
And now Navid Kermani, a prominent Iranian-born writer from Cologne, who received a national award for his efforts to promote inter-religious dialogue in Germany recently, has reciprocated by announcing that he would give his share of the €45,000 (US$67,738) award to Fr Meurer.
The cooperation between Fr Meurer and Mr Kermani illustrates how far Germany has gone in accepting its booming Muslim minority, the Christian Science Monitor reports.
"You not only had a Catholic church tolerating Muslims who want to build a mosque … but you also had Catholic parishioners giving money so that people from another faith could also practice their religion in their own place of worship," said Kermani, who shared this year's German Culture Prize with Catholic Cardinal Karl Lehmann; Peter Steinacker, former head of the Lutheran Church in the Hessen region; and Salomon Korn, vice president of the German Jewish Council.
Every year, the prize honors an artist's special contribution to German culture. This year, the jury took a different approach, looking for individuals who had worked toward promoting "the peaceful coexistence of the three great Abrahamic religions - Christianity, Judaism, and Islam," said Hessen Prime Minister Roland Koch.
With the award, he said, the state of Hessen wanted to "point out that religion is a crucial part of the cultural life of a free society."
February 3rd, 2010