A giant mosque is being built for the city of Strasbourg. Joachim Véliocras writes at Islamisation that the Regional Council of Alsace, consisting mainly of UMP members, voted in favor of a 420,000 euro subsidy for the construction of the Grand Mosque of Strasbourg. The UMP is President Sarkozy’s party.

But it wasn’t enough: the general council of the department of Bas-Rhin, also controlled by UMP, granted a supplementary subsidy of 506,000 euros for the huge project. The other parties – Socialist and Green – unanimously voted for the grant. In the name of the Concordat, the UMP controlled municipal council (during the term in office of Fabienne Keller in 2007) granted 610,000 euros to help finance the construction.

The Concordat is a special agreement decreed by Bonaparte dating from 1801 that grants public status to religion, and that permits priests to be paid by the State. In 1801, Alsace was part of France. However, when in 1905 the law separating Church and State went into effect in France, Alsace was part of Germany. After WWI Alsace again became French but never renounced the Concordat.

The first stone of the mosque was laid on October 29, 2004 by UMP Mayor Fabienne Keller (who was defeated in the recent municipal elections by the socialist candidate Roland Ries). During the inauguration of the new “political center” of Islam in Strasbourg, she was assisted by the Archbishop of Strasbourg, Joseph Dore, who “was thrilled by the occasion”, the Grand Rabbi of Strasbourg, René Gutmann, and the president of the Urban Committee of Strasbourg, Robert Grossman of the UMP party.