Mufti of Stavropol Territory urges Russian President to address demolition of mosque in Pyatigorsk

Today, Mukhammad Rakhimov, the Chairman of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims (SAM) of the Stavropol Territory, has appealed to the Russian President Vladimir Putin asking him to interfere into the demolition of the unfinished mosque in the city of Pyatigorsk and let Muslims to finish the construction. According to Rakhimov, the conflict around the mosque can provoke unrests in the city.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in November 2012 the court of Pyatigorsk found the construction of the mosque illegal and unauthorized, which, according to the city administration, was carried out without the necessary paperwork. On April 29, 2014, the Stavropol Territorial Court ruled to completely demolish the unfinished mosque in Pyatigorsk.

"This is hard to imagine in today's Russia. After all, sacred temples have not been demolished here since the days of fierce atheism of 1930s. The bulldozers, which will approach the mosque to demolish it, will call here thousands of Muslims from all over Northern Caucasus, who will then need pacifying not with bulldozers, but tanks," says the letter of the SAM's Chairman to the Russian President.

The SAM of the Stavropol Territory asks the President of the Russian Federation "to intervene in the situation and allow the community to finish the mosque in Pyatigorsk," the address further reads.