ATHENS, May 9: Some 500 ultra-conservative Greek Orthodox faithful marched through central Athens on Monday to protest against a conference of the World Church Council (WCC), the EU Constitution and the creation of a Muslim study centre near the capital.

Chiefly organized by the Greek Orthodox Salvation Movement, the demonstration was directed against the leadership of the Greek Orthodox Church, which is hosting a conference of the WCC movement on Christian unity for the first time in Greece.

The conference is to start on Tuesday at the summer resort of Agios Andreas, some 40 kilometres northeast of Athens, in a facility used to house visiting journalists during the 2004 Olympics.

Banners and handouts distributed during Monday’s march exhorted the faithful to oppose the “anti-Christ European Constitution”, the “inter-religious congress of heretics in Athens,” Pope Benedict XVI, new microchipped passports and the construction of a Muslim centre in Peania, 30 kilometres east of the city.

The oft-announced Muslim centre is a project originally envisaged by the previous socialist administration, and has been long delayed by opposition from the Greek Orthodox Church and the local community authorities of Peania.—AFP