Most of all, Muslims lack mosques in Vladivostok, Volgograd, Voronezh, Sochi and Kaliningrad, said Damir Mukhetdinov, first Deputy Chairman of the Religious Board of Muslims and the Russian Muftis Council.
The day before, Moscow hosted a meeting of the Plenum of the Religious Board of the Russian Federation, which was attended by about 40 people: chairmen of religious organizations in the structure of the Board, heads of spiritual educational organizations and private educational institutions. The text of Mukhetdinov's speech is given on the website the organization.
"Our priority is to build mosques in cities with millions of people or large urban centers, where the lack of Muslim infrastructure is particularly acute. These include Vladivostok, Volgograd, Voronezh, Yekaterinburg, Kaliningrad, Lipetsk, Sochi, Rostov-on-don," Mukhetdinov said.
According to him, objects in the Nizhny Novgorod, Volgograd, Rostov, Voronezh, Kaliningrad, Sverdlovsk, Omsk regions, the Republic of Mordovia, the Baikal and Perm territories and other regions of the Federation are at different stages of construction.
"Despite the pandemic, construction did not stop. This includes mosques, cultural and educational centers and administrative buildings," he said.
He also noted that the organization is actively restoring historical mosques. "All historical mosques on the territory of Russia outside the Caucasian area, or Tatar mosques, as they were called until the beginning of the twentieth century, which are at the disposal of the Religious Board of Muslims of the Russian Federation, have been restored or are in the process of restoration. These are the Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Perm, Tver, Chita, Yaroslavl Cathedral mosques, the new Kasimov mosque, two Moscow mosques, and others. My heart aches for the condition of the monuments of the Ural region and the South of Russia, which are run by completely different religious organizations," Mukhetdinov said.
According to him, Muslims are increasingly showing interest in the revival of their historical shrines: "on the ground" they are seeking to assign them a protected status and further restoration.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Creative Commons
Based on materials RIA Novosti