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View Full Version : Russian Muslims rally against mosque demolition threats



sonz
04-11-2006, 07:28 AM
Russian Muslims and rights activists rallied in Moscow on Monday against the government’s plans to destroy a mosque under construction in the southern city of Astrakhan, the Haaretz daily reported.

The mosque is being built next the main road that connects the airport and the city of Astrakhan.

Muslims say Russian authorities want to destroy the building because it would occupy a prominent location.

The threat to demolish the mosque also heightened Muslims’ fears that freedom of religion is being trampled in Russia.

The demonstrators, who rallied outside the Russian government headquarters, carried banners that read: "Shame on the Islamophobia in Astrakhan!" and "Russia is a multi-confessional state - Muslims are equal citizens."

"The new Astrakhan authorities didn't like the fact that a Muslim place of worship is in such a prominent place," said a statement by the organizers of Monday's protest.

Plans to build the mosque were initially laid in 1998. The city administration approved the construction three years later.

But construction work has been suspended last year, when the newly elected mayor claimed that zoning rules had been violated.

A local court ordered Muslim leaders to destroy the building at their own expenses by May 1 or face the bulldozers.

"The courts are blindly supporting the administration. We can't even get local newspapers to print our views so we have been obliged to come here to Moscow," said the mosque's administrator, Asya Makhmutova. "We believe we will be listened to and the federal government will help us, that is our hope," she said.

A rights activists also said that the threat to raze the mosque was “another proof of the hypocrisy of authorities when they talk about defending the traditional religions,

“This would be the first time in decades that a mosque is destroyed in Russia," said Yevgeny Khlov from the group For Human Rights.

There are more than 20 million Muslims in Russia, who make up 14% of the country’s total population. Half of the 1.1 million residents of Astrakhan province are Muslims.
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