Murat Yusuf

The Romanian Muftiyat, which represents Muslims in the country, has cancelled its project to build a showpiece mosque in the capital, saying the costs were too high.

The Muftiyat has filed a request to the Ministry of Culture to return the property assigned for the planned mosque to the Romanian government, Mufti Iusuf Murat said.

Resistance is growing in Bucharest to a giant mosque proposed for the city and financed by Turkey, as part of its push to build religious centres in major cities outside the country.

The Romanian government has given 11,000 sqm of terrain next to the exhibition centre 'Romexpo' with a market value of ?3.9 million for free to the Mufti of the Romanian Muslim Community, Murat Yusuf.

"Our plan is to build a mosque with a capacity to hold 1,000 people, a small park for kids, a fountain, a place for ablution and a small summer school for the study of the Koran. Nothing more," Mufti Iusuf Murat, head of the Islamic community in Romania, said on Tuesday.

The 22,000 Muslims of Constanta (southeastern Romania, on the Black Sea shore) celebrate on Friday the birth of Prophet Muhammad, a holiday called Mevlid Kandili in the Turkish-influenced local tradition.

Ambassador of Turkey to Romania Omur Solendil and Turkey's Consul-general Ali Bozçaliskan will attend on Sunday evening the Ramazan Bayrami religious service at the Abdul Medgid Mosque in the eastern city of Medgidia, celebrated by Dr. Mufti Muurat Yusuf, the head of the Muslim Cult in Romania.