Huge mosque opens in Moscow

After more than decade under construction, the doors of the newly built Moscow Cathedral Mosque have finally opened in the European city with the largest Muslim population.

It’s hoped the mosque, which can accommodate more than 10,000 worshipers, will help alleviate the acute shortage of space for Muslim prayer in the Russian capital.

“Today, we have only four mosques for 2 million Muslims in Moscow. This is not enough,” Rushan Abbyasov of the Russian Council of Muftis told CNN.

“However, according to our agreement with the Moscow government, we will start considering new projects. God willing, another massive mosque will appear,” he said.

But that may prove unpopular among many non-Muslim Muscovites, many of whom disapprove of the city’s growing Muslim population.

A recent opinion poll, published by the Levada Center, an independent agency, found that 51% of Muscovites, who are overwhelmingly Orthodox Christian, are against further mosque construction. Only 4% said they support mosque building.

But the Kremlin, usually sensitive to popular sentiments of this kind, appears to be paying little attention to the concerns.

Russian President Vladimir Putin attended the ceremonial opening of the Moscow Cathedral Mosque on Wednesday, September 23. The mosque was demolished and rebuilt to be one of the biggest mosques in the country, with room for 10,000 worshipers.

The main hall of the mosque. Moscow has 2 million Muslims and just four mosques, according to Rushan Abbyasov of the Russian Council of Muftis.

Women stand on a balcony after the opening ceremony.

People explore the new mosque.

A Muslim prays in the mosque on the evening of its opening.

People pass by the mosque as the sun sets.

The moon rises over the mosque.

The Moscow Cathedral Mosque

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The ceremonial opening of the Cathedral Mosque, near the city center, was overseen by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Foreign dignitaries also attended, including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

With his speech broadcast live on state television, Putin said that the mosque was “worthy” of a multireligious Russian capital and that he hoped it would become a center of spirituality and education in Russia.

Putin, who is stepping up military backing of the Syrian government, also used the mosque opening to push his anti-ISIS message.

“We see what’s happening in the Middle East, where terrorists from the so-called Islamic State are discrediting the great world religion of Islam, planting hatred, killing people, destroying world cultural monuments in a barbaric way,” he told the hundreds of invited guests.

“Their ideology is based on a lie, on a distortion of Islam.”

For Putin, this was clearly more than just a big mosque opening its doors to a grateful Muslim public.

This was another platform from which to bolster his credentials as a staunch opponent of Islamic extremist groups, like ISIS.

And perhaps to prepare the Russian public for even greater involvement in Syria’s brutal civil war.

Rustam Shakhov, 24, is from Dagestan. He says: "It is a day when everybody visits each other, does good, [and] smiles to each other."

On Wednesday Russia opened the new Moscow Cathedral Mosque to coincide with Eid al-Adha celebrations. We asked Moscow's Muslims to tell us what the day means to them. Kurban Eshmakov is from Kyzgyzstan and works as a sweeper in a Moscow office. "It is a great feast for us," he says. "People are being treated, I am full of joy about it."

Izet Miskhi is from Bosnia-Herzegovina and works at a construction site in Moscow. He has lived here for 25 years and says Eid al-Adha (feast of sacrifice) is "the most important day for Muslims."

Phatyakh Minzulin is from Penza and works in radio broadcasting. On Eid al-Adha, he says,"We visit each other, give money to kids, cut a sheep and distribute pieces among poor. We never abandon our old people."

Adkham Abduraiymov, 22, is from Uzbekistan and has lived in Moscow for two years. He says Eid al-Adha is celebrated in a different way in different places. "It is difficult for me to explain, this religion is in our blood since our day of birth," he adds.

Rustam Shakhov, 24, is from Dagestan. He says: "It is a day when everybody visits each other, does good, [and] smiles to each other."

Rustam Shakhov, 24, is from Dagestan. He says: "It is a day when everybody visits each other, does good, [and] smiles to each other."

Moscow's Muslims celebrate Eid al-Adha

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