The opening ceremony of the "Muslims' Pride" Mosque in Shali. Photo: screenshot of the video by the Grozny TV channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=yQN_j5xjwXM

27 August 2019, 23:50

Residents of Chechen city of Shali forced to attend pompous mosque opening

The participation in the opening ceremony of the "Muslims' Pride" Mosque in Shali was mandatory for employees of budgetary organizations, local residents informed.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the opening of a mosque in Shali on August 23 became the key event of the celebrations of the 68th birthday of Akhmat Kadyrov. The opening ceremony of the mosque was attended by tens of thousands of people, including members of 43 foreign delegations from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bahrain, Palestine, the United Arab Emirates and the CIS countries.

The building of the new mosque can house about 30,000 believers. Thus, the "Muslims' Pride" has become the largest mosque in Europe.

"At the instruction of our bosses, we went there; it was necessary to ensure a huge crowd," said Ramzan, an employee of an enterprise in the Shali District.

In his turn, Shamil, a resident of Grozny, said that he came to Shali on his own initiative, since he regarded it as "a duty of every Muslim."

"They made it very beautifully ... Ramzan Kadyrov has headed the Chechen people; and every day everything is becoming better here," Sayd-Emin Azimov, an elderly resident of Chechnya, said on air of the "Grozny" TV channel.

In the opinion of Mikhail Roschin, an Orientalist, it was important for Kadyrov to show that there are quite a lot of Muslim believers in the republic.

The attraction of budget-funded officials and employees to public events is "the style of modern Russia, not only of Chechnya," Alexei Malashenko, a political analyst, has noted.

Let us remind you that residents of Chechnya have repeatedly reported about forced participation in various actions organized by the authorities, such as rallies or subbotniks.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on August 27, 2019 at 01:36 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.

Source: CK correspondents

All news
НАСТОЯЩИЙ МАТЕРИАЛ (ИНФОРМАЦИЯ) ПРОИЗВЕДЕН И РАСПРОСТРАНЕН ИНОСТРАННЫМ АГЕНТОМ ООО “МЕМО”, ЛИБО КАСАЕТСЯ ДЕЯТЕЛЬНОСТИ ИНОСТРАННОГО АГЕНТА ООО “МЕМО”.

November 14, 2024 22:40

  • Kuban resident fined for pacifist post on Telegram

    The court has fined Anton Timoshenko, a resident of the Pavlovsky District of Kuban (the Krasnodar Territory), for a pacifist video placed by him in a Telegram channel criticizing the special military operation (SMO) in Ukraine.

November 14, 2024 19:39

November 13, 2024 23:56

November 13, 2024 23:16

  • Kabardino-Balkarian resident fined for discrediting Russian Army

    The Prokhladnensky District Court has found the allegations that local resident Viktor Marchuk had spoken in a negative way about the special military operation (SMO) in Ukraine proven. The man has been fined 30,000 roubles under the article on discrediting the Russian Armed Forces.

November 13, 2024 22:25

  • Court in Georgievsk holds hearing on Makhachkala riots

    A court hearing was held in Georgievsk on the case of five residents of Dagestan, whom investigators treat as participants in the riots that broke out at the Makhachkala Airport. At the request of the advocate of one of the defendants, the judge removed a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent from the courtroom.

News archive