ATHENS, May 9, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The choice of a Muslim woman to stand in local elections in Greece has stirred a bitter row between the right, which has questioned her allegiance to the nation, and the left, which has called it a groundbreaking move.
"This a daring and groundbreaking move which deserves to be fully supported," Socialist deputy and former European Commissioner Anna Diamantopoulou told Reuters on Tuesday, May 9.
Gul Kara Hasan was handpicked by opposition Socialist leader George Papandreou to run for prefect of her district of northeastern Greece, where many Muslims of Turkish or Bulgarian origin live.
By choosing her, the Socialists hope to gain Muslim votes and increase the representation of women in local polls.
The 27-year-old lawyer is the first ever Muslim woman to run the nationwide local elections, due in October.
Muslim men have been elected in the past to represent the region in the Greek parliament.
If she wins, Kara Hasan would be in charge of a large part of northern Greece, in a far more visible role than that of a lawmaker.
While Kara Hasan is a Pomak -- from a small group of ethnic Slavs who reverted to Islam centuries ago -- she lives side-by-side with the 120,000-strong ethnic Turkish community in Thrace.
Muslims make about 1.3% percent of the population in overwhelmingly Orthodox Christian Greece, according to the CIA facts book.
The capital Athens is home to an estimated 100,000 Muslim Albanians, Egyptians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Moroccans, Syrians and Nigerians.
Criticized
The Muslim candidacy drew immediate criticism from the ruling conservatives as well as the powerful Orthodox Church.
"We are not the same as those who have another religion," argued high-ranking bishop Anthimos.
Kara Hasan's choice has highlighted the fragile relations between majority Orthodox Greeks and the small Pomak and ethnic Turkish community, which until a few years ago was almost completely excluded from mainstream Greek social life.
Some conservative politicians have gone as far as questioning her loyality to the country.
"If she wins, I wonder if she will be standing next to me at the parade for the March 25 celebration," said George Kalantzis, minister for the northern regions of Macedonia and Thrace.
He was referring to Greece's national day marking an 1821 revolution against almost 500 years of rule by the Ottoman Turks.
Arch-rivals Greece and Turkey have long fought a war of words over what Greece calls its Muslim community but Ankara labels Turkish.
Greece vehemently denies the existence of a Turkish minority.
Kara Hasan has so far sidestepped the row, saying she is ready to work for the good of the region.
"People should not by judged by labels but by their actions."
