Window on Eurasia

Is Russian Opposition to Expansion of Mosque Actually Growing?

 

Paul Goble

Vienna, August 28, 2006 – More than 10,000 Russians have signed an Internet
petition against the refurbishment and expansion of Moscow’s
Cathedral Mosque, but at least one Muslim leader believes that many of these are made-up names and reflect not popular attitudes but “a planned
provocation” by unnamed anti-Muslim forces.

“Izvestiya” reported on Friday about protests against the
construction of a building for the Russian-American Christian Center,
protests that appear to reflect both Muscovite concerns about “an
American threat” and the NIMBY – “not in my back yard” --
worries typical of those whose neighborhood is being changed.

But the Moscow newspaper devoted most of its article to an
Internet-based effort directed against the rebuilding and expansion of
Moscow’s century-old Cathedral Mosque. One popular Internet site –
and “Izvestiya” responsibly does not give its name or URL – has
collected the signatures of more than 10,000 people opposed to this
effort.

The mosque, which is in bad condition, will not only be rebuilt but
dramatically expanded. After the remodeling is done, it will have space
within its walls for 5,000 worshippers rather than the 1500 it can
accommodate now. And it will have a special facility for conferences
and meetings as well.

To accommodate this expansion, which the Moscow city government has
already approved, builders will need to tear down several apartment
blocks and a sports facility, displacing some longtime nearby residents
and fundamentally changing the character of the neighborhood.

But what appears to anger those Russians who have signed the appeal
most, “Izvestiya” areported, is the height of the minarets planned
for the remodeled mosque. They will be 75 meters tall, significantly
less than the 103-meter tall top of the Cathedral of Christ the
Saviour.

The mosque’s opponents nonetheless assert, the paper said, that
“the mosque all the same will be taller” than the church, something they
say is inappropriate and wrong. They note, for example that Catherine
the Great ordered that Muslims could build a Kazan mosque of any height
as long as it did not exceed that of an Orthodox cathedral.

Those signing the Internet appeal hope that they will succeed in
reversing the Moscow city government’s approval of the project much
in the same way that a similar Internet campaign a year ago caused the
authorities there to reverse themselves on the approval of the
construction of a Hare Krishna center.

But statements like those concerning the supposed excessive height of
the minarets have prompted some to take issue with the campaign and to
ask pointedly why it seems to be the case that such efforts appear to
be directedly only or at least primarily against non-Orthodox groups.

These complaints prompted “Izvestiya” journalists to interview a
leading official in the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox
Church and the president of the Al-Haq [Justice] Islamic Human Rights
Organization.

Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, the deputy head of the Patriarchate’s
powerful External Relations Committee, told the paper that in fact,
there have been “not a few” demonstrations against the construction
or reconstruction of Orthodox Churches in Moscow.

Chaplin, who has attracted attention for his outspoken criticism of
other faiths, said he agreed with those Muscovites who opposed the
construction of a building for the Russian-American center. “The
authorities must listen to [the opponents],” he said, but he noted
that commercial interests rather than residents are often behind such
protests.

“In order to mask their true intensions, [such interests] use any slogans including those drawn from the struggle against terrorism,”
the Patriarchate official said. And with regard to the reconstruction
of the Cathedral Mosque, he said that he “does not doubt that this is
necessary. The many Muslims in Moscow need a contemporary building.”

Kamilzhan Kalandarov, the head of Al Haq who also serves in the Social
Chamber of the Russian Federation, said that such use of
counter-terrorist slogans to stir up anti-Muslim feelings in the
country’s capital city was “nothing but a planned provocation.”

“I am certain,” the Muslim human rights activist said, “that
behind the signatures [on the website] are no real people. Some were
paid, and some signed without reading what they were agreeding to.”
Such actions, he conclucded, will other exacerbate feelings on both
sides and lead to a worsening of relations among people of different
faiths.

 

Latest Window on Eurasia stories | Religion Archive | Islam in Russia and CIS Archive | Orthodox Church in Russia and CIS Archive | All Window on Eurasia Stories Archive |