Stockholm has Plans to Add Six New Mosques to the City's Current Two

Stockholm's Muslims pray in overcrowded mosques. The Stockholm region presently has only two mosques to accomodate all of its Muslim residents.

Now six new mosques are being planned for the metroplolitan area. Three mosques are planned for the city itself: in Skärholmen, Rinkeby and Tensta. A three further mosques are planned to be built in the Stockholm suburbs of Haninge, Botkyrka and Nacka.

These six are the only ones that have reached the planning stage. There are also several other Muslim communities in the area which currently use basemnents and other venues for prayers. These communities have also shown interest in building mosques.

Stockholm got its first mosque (pictured top) in the year 2000 after twenty years of discussions. Finally, in March 1995 the Stockholm City Council decided, in consultation with the city's Muslim leaders, to convert the old electric power station into a mosque.

The building was seen as ideal. It was a historically listed building designed by the Art Nouveau architect Ferdinand Boberg and completed in 1903. Importantly, the building was inspired by Islamic architecture. Boberg had been inspired by a visit to Morocco and had even constructed the building so that it was situated to face Mecca.

The city of Stockholm sold the building to the city's Islamic Association in 1996 for SEK 8 million. However, construction was delayed due to protests and appeals, and construction only beganin 1999. On 8 June 2000 the mosque was inaugurated.

Stockholm's second mosque, the Fittja Mosque (pictured above), was completed in 2007 to accomodate the city's Turkish Muslim population and was constructed in a Turkish style. Services there are conducted in Turkish and Swedish.