· - ZOiS REPORT - FAITH, STATE, AND RELIGIOUS COMPETITION IN GEORGIA

Yet, the community has faced strong resistance to the construction of the mosque, including the refusal of the city authorities to grant planning permission for the building. [...] However, this religious place is the site of an invis- ible conflict between the state authorities and the Orthodox Church, on the one hand, and the Catholic community, on the other. [...] These four modes of relations show variation in self-perceptions and re- veal that questions of the construction, rebuilding, and appropriation of public places of worship have become central to the political and symbolic 16 ZOiS Report 1 /  2021 Faith, state, and religious competition in Georgia contestation between the alliance of the state and the Orthodox Church, on the one hand, and minority. [...] In the words of Tariel Nakaid- ze, the chairman of the Georgian Muslim Union: „„26 May was also a Friday, so we used the perfect coincidence and opened the new mosque on Jummah day [the Muslim day of collective prayer] and the country’s national holiday at the same time.32 According to the foundation, the future mosque should be not only a prayer house for believers but also a cultural centre for. [...] As for religious places, the intensity of contestation in these sites depends on the level of support from the state and on the role of the Orthodox Church.