Stockholm, Sweden: 2003
In the 1960s and ’70s, foreign workers from Turkey and Pakistan poured into northern Europe to fuel the economic boom. In Scandinavia, particularly, the new ethnic groups were highly visible elements in a culture that was unaccustomed to outsiders. In the 1980s, Muslim Turkish and Pakistani immigrants were joined by a new group of refugees from the Middle East, and with them came even more interest in practicing their faith. Islam is now Sweden’s second-largest religion. In Stockholm, a visible sign of Islam’s importance is the stately mosque that opened in 2000 in a former electrical power plant in the central Södermalm district. The building’s unusual architecture made it perfect as a mosque: designed in 1903 in the Art Nouveau style, it already had Middle Eastern touches such as green-and-white geometric tile work and vaulted ceilings. And in the best Swedish tradition, the building even has a sauna, which is strictly segregated between males and females.