Seventy mosques are to be built or enlarged in the Netherlands in the next four years. Most of them on the outskirts of residential neighborhoods, in industrial areas and farmlands, out of sight of the Ethnic Dutch.
One reason for this is that big mosques need a lot of space and hosting 2000 people in a residential neighborhood is not easy. Another reason is the growing anger at Islam.
The Netherlands will soon have 450 mosques, 115 of which are in the four big cities. They offer services to one million worshipers. The number of churches, on the other hand, is going down, with about 4500 currently, with Catholic churches especially being turned over for other purposes.
Mosques are being built due to a severe shortage of space. Especially during Ramadan, many municipalities open up tents to deal with the overflow. The mosques have in many cases engaged in year long struggles in order to build more, and in most cases are doubling the upper floor.
Source: AD.nl (Dutch)
See also: Netherlands: More and more mosques
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