Opposition to house of prayer

The Lettenstrasse 11 in Rotkreuz houses various small businesses – a garage workshop, software companies and even a bee-keeper.  A sign at the entrance to the 2-storey building doesn’t stand out so much at first sight - a sentence in a foreign language and then the translation: Albanian Islamic Mosque in Zug.
 
The Albanian-Islamic Association meets here on weekends, and twice a year for festivals. "We have been praying, talking, playing and eating here since April 2014," explains Redjep Memeti, president of the association, and the community bought the premises two years ago.
 
The association has now published a planning application in the Zug Amtsblatt (official journal) to convert the rooms into prayer and recreation rooms and/or into a mosque.  The note “already carried out” stands in brackets after the application. By the deadline for objections, seven objections to this application had been received by the local council.
 
Memeti is even more disappointed about the objections from the neighbourhood, because "No one ever came to discuss this with us. Our doors are open to everyone,” says Memeti, who has been living in Switzerland for 38 years.
 
Why had the association taken so long to submit the planning application? "I didn’t know that we had to do it," explains Memeti. He is now trying to make up for his mistake. The council had the following to say: "During an inspection in a different context, we found that a mosque was being operated at the Lettenstrasse 11," says Municipal Secretary Ivo Krummenacher. This use requires a building permit. "The operation of a mosque influences the space and the environment in a different way to the intended use as a commercial space," clarifies Krummenacher and continues: "This is, for example, in relation to the higher level of traffic in front of the building and the higher density of people in the rooms." The fire safety aspects also have to be re-examined.
 
Memeti, who originates from Macedonia, clarifies: "These are primarily prayer and recreation rooms." It is not a mosque in the conventional, structural sense. 20 to 25 members congregate here from Friday evening to Sunday: "We are like a big family." In addition, the association was not formed in secret, as some of the objections allege. "We registered properly with the municipality in 2004." And he emphasizes: "There is nothing surreptitious, everything takes place openly." The Zug police check everything out twice a year. "There has never been any problems here." This was confirmed by a check with the local council: "There are no complaints on record", confirmed Krummenacher.
 
The council now will decide on the planning application, which will be handled by the Planning/ Construction/Safety department. As this is an ongoing process, the council cannot provide detailed information, and it is precisely this fact that is criticized in the objections. Memeti says: "Six of the seven objections have almost the same wording. The main reason for the objections is simply that they do not want a mosque in the neighbourhood.” Either way, one thing is clear for the club president: "We are looking forward positively to the future."
 
The opposition to the house of prayer has manifested itself in the form of a letter that was sent to a number of households I n the neighbourhood. Rumour has it that the letter encouraged people to make an objection. "The council has a copy of the letter. Its author is anonymous, however”, confirms the town clerk.