Helsinki Mayor Juhana Vartiainen (NCP) has said municipal authorites will try to close an unauthorised mosque operating in a Helsinki apartment building.
Vartiainen told Yle on Monday that the city was looking to shut down the mosque and that those running it would likely face a fine for breaching zoning rules.
Ilta-Sanomat was the first outlet to report that an unauthorised mosque had been operating in a unit zoned for a daycare centre.
A resident shareholder in the building, living above the space, filed a noise complaint with the city last autumn.
"The space is used for communal male prayers every day of the week, including weekends and multiple times a day," the complainant said.
"We've asked them to stop using the space like this," Vartiainen noted.
IS also reported that the 450-square-metre space is owned by a foundation called Pohjoismaiden Säätiö sr, which it said receives funding from Saudi Arabian businessmen.
The city's dealings with the foundation relate to zoning. However, several Finnish politicians — including Interior Minister Mari Rantanen (Finns) — have spoken out in regard to the mosque, with Rantanen promising to look into stopping 'damaging foreign funding'.
There was an outcry after the article, partly due to homophobic comments made by the foundation's chairman, Aladin Maher.
"If you make these types of laws where a man sleeps with another man and a woman with a lesbian, where will you get children?" IS quoted Maher as saying.
The mayor told Yle that opposing various forms of extremist thought was a matter of "national importance."
Pohjoismaiden Säätiö has denied that its use of the apartment deviates from zoning rules, telling the city earlier this year that the unit also hosted freetime activities for children.
In March the city ordered the foundation to stop using the space as a mosque.