[Music] welcome back to the Islamic shahada channel in this video we will explore an Islamic Village in Greece hundreds of mosques stand strong many Greeks have converted to [Music] Islam located in the northern region of Greece with most of the area being Highlands zanti has cooler temperatures throughout the year this city which is nicknamed West Taria has almost 50% of its population being Muslim it's not surprising that in this city we can easily find Halal restaurants mosques cemeteries including Sharia law matters additionally there is kend deos Village 30 minutes drive from the center of zany City if you type the name of this Village into a search engine there are not many stories or references however kendos Village is interesting because it is the only Village in Greece where 100% of the res residents are Muslim it is located on the border with two countries turkay and Bulgaria the journey through Islam on the land of the Greek gods seems endless after seeing the story of the resilience of Muslims in the city of Athens to the freedom of the Islamic community in komotini now the Islamic jazer team and I have arrived in the city of zanthi to see the uniqueness of Muslims in the Villages of the pomac tribe zanti is part of Weston thce along with kotini Alexandra Puli and sufle the population of this city is around 65,000 people with a fairly large Muslim predominance most of them live in the mountains and are known as white villagers here Muslim identity is seen much more clearly and Muslim life is not as difficult as life in Athens aan can be freely resounded at every call to prayer Muslim funerals are not difficult to find even Islamic culture and rules are freely applied in everyday life Greece is home to more than 10 million people of which 3.5% are Muslims its history began when Islam was introduced in the 8th Century through the Creon Empire from the warrior Dynasty but in the 9th century the Creon Empire was conquered by the byzantines and immigrants from Albania also introduced the Islamic religion [Music] Islam is often labeled as a fanatical religion and is synonymous with Hardline ideology and cannot coexist with other religions the actions of a handful of people with different ways of thinking have given the name Islam and Muslims a very negative impression in several countries but the village of EOS in zanti presents a different fact echinos is a village with a Muslim population of almost 90% that is why in almost all Corners elements of Islam can be seen so thick and real in this Village and one thing that can be seen is the existence of an Islamic school or madrasa one of 30 Villages inhabited by the Greek Muslim Community and talking about the Muslim Community in this country cannot be separated from the name of the pomac tribe in the zanthi region yes zanti cannot be separated from the existence of the pomac tribe in Greece for hundreds of years years the pomac people have been part of the city as in their neighboring country of Bulgaria the Greek pomak tribe is spread across the rodopi mountains bordering Bulgaria pomak is a native Slavic Muslim tribe or ethnicity found in four countries namely turkey Bulgaria Albania and Greece there are no exact figures regarding the population of the pomac tribe living in Greece but it is estimated that there are around 35,000 pomac people living in the zanth region after doing research from various sources there is actually very little written literature that I could find about history that can explain the origins of the pomac tribe and this is the reason why there are so many versions circulating about the origins of this tribe and one of the stories circulating is that the existence of the pomac tribe cannot be separated from the influence of the Ottoman Turkish caliphate which once triumphed on the European continent [Music] in Greece itself the story of pomac began when the ottoman Turkish troops took control of this country and occupied the zanthi region since being dominated by Muslim ottoman troops more and more pomac tribes have become Muslims to this day this European Muslim tribe is one that has a distinctive traditional appearance the colorful woven Fabric and full of beautiful decorations including the headscarf like head covering that is characteristic of pomac women as Muslim women also quite caught my attention one by one wi Dan as a native pomac woman showed what she considered the treasures of a pomac woman a pomac woman is required to have the ability to make handicrafts and make typical dishes of this tribe since they were still young pomac women have been taught to become women who are good at making crafts cooking and being good Housewives as a Muslim woman she believes that Islam has regulated the way a woman lives on a daily basis so that her figure becomes a beautiful and gentle person who is always Noble in the eyes of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala although the Muslim population in Greece does not exceed 1 million compared to the 11 million Christian population there Ramadan in Greece has special Traditions many Traders import dates from various countries and also some sweets because Greek people like sweet food during Ramadan like rizogalo a typical Greek pudding made from rice it tastes sweet with a fairly strong cinnamon flavor another dish galacta borco is a sweet snack with a slightly chewy filling wrapped in a crunchy skin during the fasting month the Muslim Community in Greece continues to hold the tradition of breaking the fast and praying together benefactors cover the costs for the food many workers and students attended the fast breaking event not only that Greece also likes to hold religious and cultural contests during Ramadan including Al Quran and Al Hadis reading contests the mosque is a place to teach Islamic knowledge mosque management invites senior ulam from various Islamic countries throughout the holy month every day after the Asser prayer Muslims in Greece gathered to pray in the mosque to listen to one of the alquran memorizers read one Jews of the alquran then it continues with the congregation reading as much as they can between mcreb and Aisha prayers after that they perform Tara prayers by listening to taaya religious lessons before tarwi [Music] prayers during the last third of Ramadan the mosque is filled with pilgrims performing iaka they read the Quran and perform tarwi and tahajud prayers Muslim congregations in Greece perform eov in 15 prayer places a type of prayer room in the country's capital Athens this was done because there was no great mosque there in most parts of Greece there are only small mosques such as in thessalonica and Petra Greek Muslims are concentrated in the western thce region which is in the northern region of Greece directly bordering turkey and was once part of the Ottoman Turkish Empire like other regions that once enjoyed a glorious period with the Ottoman Empire Muslims in Western thce Greece also consist of various ethnic groups mixed together among them are Turkish Bulgarian people who speak the pomx language and a small number are also descendants of Greeks who converted to Islam during ottoman rule the original identity of Muslims in Western thce Greek has become a matter of debate between turkey and [Music] Greece the Turkish side believes that Muslims in Western thce are mostly Turkish while the Greek side believes that Western thce Muslims are Muslims from the pomac ethnicity and Indigenous population who later converted to Islam and used Turkish language and culture during ottoman rule the lack of Muslims in Greece cannot be separated from past history these two countries turkey and Greece signed the Treaty of loanne in 1923 regarding population exchange between the two countries after the Balkan war in the agreement 1.5 million Anatolian Greeks or Greeks living on the Anatolian Peninsula which is Turkish territory must leave the region for Greek territory the treaty excluded the territory of Western thce 3,000 Turks on the island of rhs and 200 Turks on the island of C the islands of roads and C were excluded from the treaty because at the time the treaty was signed they were under Italian [Music] rule the consequence is that Muslims living in Western thce and the island of rhs become a Muslim minority living in Greece and Western thce became a kind of Muslim Enclave in Greece Muslims in Western thce make up 28.8% of the Region's population Western thce is divided into five regions Regional units namely Regional units cavala drama evos ropi and zanthi of the five Regional units three of them have quite High Muslim populations Muslims in the ropi regional unit make up 51.77 per of the total population 41.9% in zanti and 4.65% in the OS Regional unit the population exchange between the two countries did not present a population composition that was not ethnically homogeneous both Muslims were moved to Turkish territory from Greece and vice versa Christian residents were moved from Turkish territory to Greek territory the Christians who were transferred to Greece from Turkey consisted of various ethnicities not only Greeks including those who spoke Georgian Arabic and even Turkish likewise the Muslims who were moved to Turkey from Greece were not all Turks among them there were ethnic albanians bulgarians vlocks including Greeks from the valadis ethnic group from the Western Greek Macedonia region this happened in relation to the Millet system used during ottoman Turkish rule where loyalty to religion and state was difficult to differentiate because religion was the law of the state and in this case turkey and Greece were the fathers of the various ethnic groups in this region in relation to religion in [Music] see in 1922 the Muslim minority living in Western thce northern Greece numbered around $86,000 consisting of four ethnic groups namely Turks usually called Western thce Turks Pacs Bulgarian speaking Slavic Muslims Roma Muslims and Greek Muslims each of these groups has their own culture and language when referring to the loan agreement article 45 Muslims in Western thce are officially called a Muslim minority group but then unofficially they are just called a Muslim minority as a single unit referring to the Greek government Muslims who speak Turkish in this region reach 50% followed by pomac speaking Muslims 35% and roma Muslims 15% the Greek government government is reluctant to call the 50% Turkish Muslims but calls them turkish-speaking Muslims with the assumption that not all of this Muslim group is Turkish but that there are also other ethnic groups including Greek ethnic groups who later converted to Islam and use Turkish traditions and language the Muslim minority in Greece has the same rights as the majority of the Greek population including the right to protection from acts of discrimination and freedom to practice religion as regulated in articles 5 and 13 of the Greek constitution in the thce region itself there are now three muans around 270 imams and around 300 mosques in the political field Muslim minorities in Greece are represented in Parliament currently represented by pasok members ctin Manda and ammed hosman in the 2002 Regional election C around 250 Muslims were elected to sit in ccil seats at the city and prefectural levels even the deputy prefect a kind of Deputy Governor in the ropi regional unit was a Muslim the largest human rights activist organization among the Turkish Muslim minority in Greece is the Turkish minority movement for human and minority rights in the thce region there are 235 primary schools for minority groups which use Greek and Turkish as the medium of instruction there are also two junior high schools each in zanthi and in komotini where the minority population is concentrated for remote areas in the mountains of the zanthi region where most of the pomac ethnic group Live the Greek government provides junior high schools in Greek but religious education is delivered in Turkish and alquran lessons are delivered in Arabic [Music] there are two Islamic religious high schools in Greece respectively in komotini and in echinos a small town in the zanti regional unit the majority of which is inhabited by pomak Muslims under law number 2621 1998 the qualifications of these two high schools are recognized and aligned with higher religious education seminaries managed by the Greek Orthodox church and 0 5% of Greek College seats are reserved for minority residents all educational institutions referred to were established by the government the main complaint from the Greek Muslim minority group was related to the appointment of muties Islamic religious leaders the Greek government began appointing muties instead of holding elections after the death of the previous Muti in kontini in 1985 this violated law number 2345 1920 concerning the survival of culture even though what the Greek government is doing is common in Turkey this is done considering that the Muti also has a Judicial function in household matters and inheritance law the state must determine [Music] this however human rights observers consider this to violate the provisions of the loan agreement which gives Muslim minorities the right to organize and carry out religious Affairs without government interference although it is not clear whether what is meant by inheritance law is included in the category of religious matters in its implementation there are two muties for each region one Muffy is appointed by Presidential decree and one muy is elected by the Islamic um the elected muy for the zanti region was Mr AA then the government appointed Mr sinu as Muffy from the government side the Muffy elected for the kotini area was Mr Sharif and the government appointed Mr shamali from the government side referring to the Greek government the election that one Mr AA and Mr shareif was rigged and very few Muslims took part in the election this attempt was considered a criminal offense as regulated in Greek criminal law and the two muties were then prosecuted and sentenced to prison and fines however when the matter reached the European Court of Human Rights the Greek government was found guilty of violating Mr a and Mr Sheriff's right to Religious Freedom another controversial issue is related to Article 19 of the Greek citizenship law which allows the government to revoke citizenship for those who are not ethnic Greek and leave the country referring to statistical data 46,6 38 Muslims most of them Turkish Muslims from thce and the dokin islands lost their citizenship from 1955 to 1998 until the rule was abolished in 1998 the latest case is the Greek government's ban on the use of the terms Turk and Turkish to refer to the Muslim minority as a whole the impact was that a number of organizations including the Turkish Union of zanthi were banned by the government for using the name Turkish in their organizations in 2008 the European Union's human rights Court ruled that the Greek government had violated freedom of Association and asked to lift the ban on the organization but the Greek government was reluctant to comply with the decision home to around 370,000 Muslims or 3.5% of the population Greece has a long history with Islam and adherence of Muhammad Sal salah's message the Muslim population in Greece is not homogeneous because it consists of different ethnic l linguistic and social backgrounds most of them come from Albania however there were also Turkish pomac certain Romani groups and Greek Muslims especially from cree ayrus and Western Macedonia specifically in the 17th and 18th centuries but the indigenous Muslim Community in thce numbered around 120,000 people the existence of Muslim entities in Greece cannot be separated from the Dynamics that emerg from the Treaty of loanne in 1923 see Hugh poulton in the Balkans minorities and states in Conflict minority rights Publications explains this agreement provides two sides of the coin at once positive and negative on the one hand the agreement and principle of population exchange between Greece and the new Republic of Turkey was the first form of recognition of the institution of muy in some aspects of civil law and thce this provision has been respected by the Greek government although they officially only represent certain minorities muties can take on some leadership roles for the Muslim Community at large regarding Islamic religious education the Treaty of loan stated that schools should be established for children from Muslim communities in Western thce however in general this school is considered unable to optimize the abilities of Muslim Students so that they cannot compete in the world of work [Music] recently the Greek government has attempted to increase educational opportunities for members of the Muslim minority in Western thce providing Financial incentives College admissions and employment opportunities finally the capital of Greece Athens opened its first mosque after 14 years of disputes and bureaucracy finally the capital of Greece Athens opened its first mosque after 14 years of disputes and bureaucracy turkey has long condemned Greece's violations of the rights of Muslim and Turkish minorities from closing mosques to allowing historic mosques to fall into [Music] disrepair Islamic revert friends the expansion of Islamic territory since the time of kulfa rashin has also meant the Revival of the study of ancient Greek thoughts because Muslim Scholars at that time openly studied it and among them also include fakis who studied the Sharia however this thinking was modified by the thoughts of the inhabitants of the conquered areas and other influences which were adapted to Islamic values next it is expressed in Arabic philosophical principles continue to be explored until connections emerg with the thoughts of the Greek philosopher who was also more phenomenal thousands of years ago Plato through Plato says tamim Ansari in the book from the top of Baghdad Islamic version of world history Muslim Scholars discovered the entire treasury of Greek thought the treasury of thought he explained stretches from the time of Socrates to Aristotle that's all for this video thank you for watching Until the End see you in the next video [Music] [Music] oh [Music]