Dagestan starts selling mobile phones for Muslims

Dagestan starts selling mobile phones for Muslims. A number of members of the Muslim community were delighted by a new gadget, and others found it not quite appropriate.

The new mobile phone is called BQ Istanbul and costs about 2000 roubles, the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was told by Abdula Magomedov, a seller from a Makhachkala mobile phone store. According to the seller, the development of the new gadget involved Russian professionals, including specialists from Dagestan.

The memory of the gadget stores the Koran in two languages (Arabic and Russian) and the application of "Namaz Alarm", which uses a built-in navigator to determine location of a mobile phone's owner and informs him or her of the time of namaz (prayer) five times a day by audio signal.

The new gadget has received the approval of the Muslim leaders of Dagestan. Mukhummad-Rasul Saaduev, the Imam of the Makhachkala central mosque, has positively responded to the idea. He has noted that "it is very convenient, and it is not necessary to carry a namaz schedule."

However, not all Muslims agree with the implementation of such a mobile phone model in the republic. "A person can go to any place with a mobile phone, including a toilet room. Meanwhile, the mobile phone contains the Koran, and this attitude to the sacred book is not quite appropriate," believes Rashid Makhmudov, a resident of Dagestan.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.