Archbishop Ieronymos queries plans for mosque

Archbishop Ieronymos, the head of the Church of Greece, has expressed caution toward plans to build a mosque in Athens while warning that shutting down Greece’s northern borders will turn the country into a holding pen for refugees.

“Who are we going to build a mosque for?” Ieronymos said during an interview with Skai TV late Wednesday, adding that Sunni and Shiite Muslims “are killing each other.”

“Are these people going to pray there or will mosques become schools for jihadism and fundamentalism? Who is going to monitor this?” he said.

Ieronymos also criticized recent legislation extending cohabitation rights to same-sex couples. “Does a child raised by a couple of this sort not have rights? Who is going to defend these rights?” he said.

The archbishop avoided criticism of controversial comments made by Orthodox clerics.

Speaking about the ongoing refugee crisis, Ieronymos warned that recent developments were “preplanned.”

“We should all ask ourselves why these people left Syria and are drowning in the Aegean Sea. Who is responsible? Who bombed them? Who is conducting this war and for what reason?” he said.

“Everything that is happening today is part of a plan for the next 50 years.”