Muslims in Moscow need more mosques. Does Moscow need any?

A mosque that will be able to house up to 40-60 thousand worshipers is to be built in Moscow. It will be the largest mosque in Russia, and the second largest Muslim temple on the post-Soviet space (after the mosque in Dushanbe). The Spiritual Administration of Muslims in Moscow and the Central Federal District filed an application for the plot of land to build a new mosque and a cultural center a long ago. The religious facilities will be built on the outskirts of the city.

According to the Spiritual Administration of the Muslims of Russia, the number of the Muslim population in Moscow has been growing steadily. It is easy to assume that it is not the Tatars, who make the Muslim population in Moscow grow, even though they live in the Russian capital for centuries.

This year, the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha was celebrated on August 19. It coincided with one of the major Christian holidays - Transfiguration. The traffic on a number of streets in the center of Moscow was partially blocked, and, as you may guess, it was not because of religious processions of Orthodox believers. During Islamic holidays, the central mosque near the Olympic Sports Complex can not accommodate all those who wish to participate in the joint prayer to Allah. Hundreds of people have to pray right in the street. The mosques that Moscow has today can not accommodate all worshipers. The Council of Muftis of Russia put forward a suggestion to build one mosque in each administrative district of the capital. Will the Moscow government accept the idea?

A while back, the residents of one of the Moscow neighborhoods expressed their protests against the plans to build a mosque on their territory. We do not know how the protest ended, but it seems that it was a bit naive, as it was directed not against the cause, but against the consequence of one and the same phenomenon. During the Soviet times, there was a popular joke of only two words - "A Jewish janitor." In today's Russia, particularly in Moscow, it is the expression "a Slavic janitor" that sounds like a joke. Everyone is used to the fact that it is only non-Russian individuals who work as janitors. Non-Russian nationalities dominate other areas of economic activities: small business, large-scale construction, etc.

However, it is the image of the Tajik or Uzbek janitor that symbolizes the current state of affairs in today's Russia most brightly. The majority of people who use brooms, shovels and lawnmowers in their everyday work are illegal migrants from Asian republics of the former USSR. They work on municipal positions, i.e. they are public servants of the municipal level. So we have illegal state employees everywhere, but no one seems to pay attention to the issue. (...)