Georgia: Chela villagers split in their views on restoration of minaret

The Muslims of the village demand to rebuild the dismantled minaret and state a deliberate inciting an inter-religious conflict, "which opens the door to terrorism." In their turn, the Orthodox residents complain about the infringement of their rights by Muslims. The authorities and NGO activists wait for the conflict to be addressed at the level of legislation about religious sites.

Let us remind you that the dismantling of the minaret in the village of Chela, Adygen Region of the country, caused resonance amidst the Georgian society. The religious structure was established on June 18. Then, some villagers initiated collection of signatures against the minaret. The municipal authorities found the installation illegal; and on August 26 the minaret was dismantled.

On that very day, Muslims began their protest action in front of the police building in Akhaltsikhe. On the following day, Jemal Paksadze, the Mufti of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims (SAM) of Georgia, said that after the commodity expertise the minaret would be restored. However, this decision caused outrage among the Christian population of the district.

Mamuka Vashakmadze, the Mufti of the region of Samtskhe-Javakheti, says that the incident in the village of Chela is a discrimination of the Muslim population of Georgia.

In his turn, Father Nikolai, the priest in a nearby village of Zarzma, believes that the conflict began right with the fact that Muslims had installed the minaret, without asking permission from local Christians.

Tsira Meskhishvili, an activist of the local NGO "Tolerance", has focused her attention on the fact that many problems stem from the fact that Georgia has no law on construction of religious facilities.

To date, the conflict over the minarets is not over. The object is warehoused a few kilometres off the village and is guarded by the police around the clock.