People of the town of Naro-Fominsk in the Moscow region have raised protests against the current construction of a mosque in the town, and have asked Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to intervene, while the regional Muslim authority has dismissed the protests as unfair.
“Foundations have been laid for a mosque in the private housing area in our town,” the protesters said in an open letter to Medvedev.
The unfinished building “is being used as a mosque already. Prayer services, religious rites and majlises are being held, and a Sunday school has opened,” the letter reads.
The signatories said they had repeatedly complained to the administration of the Moscow region, “but each time we were told that a residential building was under construction there.”
“On Muslim holidays, tremendous numbers of people gather at this address, and sacrifices are made. People are always coming and going. We are afraid to go out both in the daytime and in the evening, much less do we want to take our children out for a walk. ‘Guests’ of the mosque who are taking part in building of the mosque are living on the construction site,” the letter says.
An area next to the construction site “has become cluttered and is being used as a dump, which blocks passage for local residents,” it reads.
The protesters urged Medvedev to “put pressure on the local administration because it is being inactive, putting off dealing with the issue.”
The Moscow region’s Muslim authority denied the statements made in the letter. “The congregation are very polite people,” the authority, part of the Russian Muftis Council, said in a statement posted on its website.
“There is no cluttering or dump at the construction site area on Volodarsky Street. There is what one calls a construction site. This involves the storage of construction materials. There always was and is enough room to walk through,” the statement says.
Moreover, on each Muslim holiday the leaders of the local Islamic community “treat neighbors in the nearby houses, bringing them pilaf, fruit, and sweets,” it says.