Norway: Foreign Minister Prevents Saudis Building Mosques

Here's the Google translation to the article in the Norwegian press:

Minister (Labor) will prevent Saudi Arabia to finance mosques in Norway.

Saudi government and wealthy individuals want to build mosques for tens of millions in Norway. They have allowed according to Norwegian laws Ãkonomisk support to religious communities. The assumption is that the Norwegian government approves funding, newspaper VG.

In a response to the Islamic Center Tawfiiq MFA writing that it would be "paradoxical and unnatural if it was given approval for funding from sources in a country where it does not open for religious freedom."

- We could have said no, the principle does not give UD such approvals. But when we asked, we use the opportunity to add that an approval would be paradoxical since it is a crime in Saudi Arabia to establish Christian communities, said Minister of VG.

State Secretary Espen Barth Eide, visiting Saudi Arabia today, and will take up the allowance:

- I understand that many of my European colleagues have the same problem, and Norway will take the matter up in the Council of Europe, says the Minister.

The answer from the Foreign Ministry is to Tawfiiq Islamic Center, but the Minister said that the religious community Alnor that will build the mosque in Tromsø with the support of a Saudi Arabian businessman, will have an identical response.