MOSCOW, August 13 (RIA Novosti) – Moscow City Hall has no plans to create special Muslim prayer zones in parks as a response to overcrowding in mosques during popular religious holidays, the acting culture minister in the Russian capital said Tuesday.
“Parks are tolerance zone, and we do not prioritize any one religion in them,” Sergei Kapkov, acting head of Moscow government’s culture department, told RIA Novosti.
Acting Deputy Mayor Pyotr Biryukov, however, said the idea could materialize if it were to get the backing of the majority of Muscovites.
“We ask Muscovites about everything now; they’re the masters of the city. We’ll find out who’s in the majority and who’s in the minority, and obey the majority,” Biryukov said.
The idea was pitched to the City Hall by a group of Moscow-based urban designers, Izvestia daily reported earlier Tuesday, citing a group spokesman.
Their project included easy-to-dismantle sets of thin matching stone slabs with built-in prayer mats, according to pictures published by Izvestia, which suggested that up to 100 such “prayer spaces,” each with a capacity of 100 to 150 faithful, could be stationed around Moscow parks for major Islamic holidays.
Moscow, a city of 12 million, only has four mosques, which are overcrowded during holidays such as Eid al-Fitr, during which some 150,000 people headed to the downtown Moscow Cathedral Mosque, reportedly obstructing traffic in places.
Plans to build new mosques in the city are often met with heated opposition from residents, though so are plans to build more Orthodox Christian churches.
