‘Religious freedoms restricted in Cyprus’
RELIGIOUS freedoms are being restricted on both sides of Cyprus, a US State Department study has claimed.
Concerns were raised in the US government’s annual Report on International Religious Freedoms, covering 2017, which was released on Tuesday.
It highlighted continued denial of any “administrative authority” by the Muslim community at 21 mosques in South Cyprus.
Referring to conditions in the “Republic of Cyprus”, the report authors noted that permission had been granted to Turkish Cypriots to “access to religious sites in the area it controls, including for visits by approximately 2,650 Turkish Cypriots and foreign nationals to Hala Sultan Tekke Mosque [in Larnaca] on three occasions”.
It said “seven of the eight functioning mosques” in South Cyprus, with the exception of Hala Sultan Tekke, were open for “all five daily prayers, and six had the necessary facilities for ablutions”.
“Despite long-standing requests, the [Greek Cypriot administration] did not grant permission to the Muslim community to make improvements at mosques,” the report continued.
The document raised concerns over attitudes in South Cyprus to believers of other faiths, with claims of “social ostracism” by those who converted to “another religion, such as Islam”.
In a separate section on the “area administered by the Turkish Cypriot authorities”, the State Department said the Turkish Cypriot government “continued to restrict access to religious sites”.
The report noted that the North’s authorities had approved 83 out of 133 requests to hold religious services during the year, including about 67 out of 112 requests reportedly put forward by the Unficyp peacekeeping force.
It added that “Alevi Muslims said they lacked places to worship and funding to construct them and that authorities treated them and other religious minorities unequally”.
The report also said that the “Turkish- Speaking Protestant Association continued to report societal discrimination toward Protestants, and some minority religious groups said Turkish Cypriots who converted to other faiths, particularly Christianity, faced criticism”.