Islamic Centers historia för engelska läsare

"According to representatives of the Islamic Center in Malmö, discussions about constructing purpose built mosques were initiated in 1960. This gave rise at the time to a certain resistance from the local society, but plans to build a mosque in Malmö were still alive in the early 1980s when construction of the Islamic Center was started. The mosque in Malmö was opened with a Friday prayer on April 20, 1984. The driving force behind the mosque construction was Bejzat Becirov. He came to Sweden in 1962 from Yugoslavia and formed, together with Midhat Ibrahimbegovic the Muslim Assembly in 1967. Midhat came to Sweden in 1953 and settled in Lund, and worked as an electrical engineer at the engineering firm JL Weibull in Åkarp.

During an interview, Midhat recalls that the number of Muslims in Sweden in 1953 was around 500, but no one in Lund, to his knowledge. In the late 1950s, more Muslims came because of labour migration and, since then, the number has been constantly increasing. In 1961, Midhat arranged the first Muslim common prayer and celebration of the Eid ul-Adha festival in Malmö. Approximately 60-70 Muslims from Malmö, Lund and Copenhagen, attended the event.

According to the Islamic Center's website the main aim of the Mosque and Islamic Center was to preserve contemporary Muslim heritage within the context of a future Swedish identity. For almost 30 years now, the Islamic Center has been one of Sweden's leading Islamic institutions.

The Center has unfortunately over the years been subjected to a series of sabotage and the Center's leaders often receive threats. On the night of April 27 2003 large parts of the mosque area, including the Muslim independent school Ögårdsskolan were devastated in a major fire which is suspected to have been deliberately set. No one has been prosecuted for the fire as yet. Other attacks against the mosque consisted of racist graffiti and broken windows and a number of minor arson attacks. It is said that at one point a pig was thrown into the mosque."

Källa, Exploring muslim identities in europe onsdag 5 januari 2011:

http://european-muslims.blogspot.com/2011/01/muslim-associations-in-malmo-and-lund.html