Another Deadline for Mosque
Munich. The project has been written off multiple times - but has not entirely come to an end: the idea to build a mosque at the Gotzinger Platz in Sendling.
Mayor Christian Ude granted the potential builder of the mosque, Ditim, once again another extension of time on the building deadline. Ditim has until the end of August to acquire financial backing for the project, the chairman of the club, Mehmet Curuk confirmed.
Ditim asked the mayor for an extension, says Curuk. Ude granted it. "We almost have another month of time." Curuk indicated, that he was talking to possible investors for the mosque building at Gotzinger Platz, but he didn't go into details. Curuk is not very optimistic about the project. There is only "slight hope", that the mosque will be built.
Extensions for the mosque project at the Gotzinger Platz are a tradition by now: when it was revealed in August 2008 that Ditim has financial problems, Ude said that the company had to provide evidence for the possibility of financing the project to the town council, which set the deadline for the middle of las year. Later that year the town council extended the time limit - to nine months after planning permission was given. However in February 2010, former head of Ditim, Recep Dereli, declared the project as dead - as there wouldn't be any investors. Ude gave the new Ditim leadership a new deadline in a meeting at the start of may: if there wasn't any prospect for financing until the end of May, Ditim should cancel the project officially. But now it's clear, that this deadline was extended as well.
It is also unclear as to what will happen with the area in Sendling if no mosque will be built. The town council did not give any information about it yesterday. In the meantime the union of tax payers has demanded information from Ude about the payment of the land purchase tax. Ditim was not able to pay a part of the tax - about 90,000 Euro - when they bought the area, the city helped them out. Ude says the city was legally forced to help out, but if the project is officially cancelled, the city will get the money back from the Finanzamt.
