03:28, 27 December 2015

Evkurov offers to elect new Ingush Mufti

Yunus-Bek Evkurov. Photo: http://www.ingushetia.ru/news/glava_obsudil_gotovnost_operativnogo_shtaba_pravitelstva_respubliki_k_predstoyashchim_prazdnichnym_i/

The head of Ingushetia Yunus-Bek Evkurov has criticized the republic's Spiritual Centre of Muslims (SCM) and offered the Muftiyat to accept resignation of the Mufti Isa Khamkhoev. However, the SCM has objected to the offer.

"I had a meeting at the Muftiyat with Imams of the republic, religious leaders and elders, to whom I expressed my dissatisfaction with the activities of the Muftiyat," Evkurov wrote in his page on the Instagram.

He noted that he was dissatisfied, in particular, "with the reaction to the events of this summer, which undermine the authority of the official clergy."

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on June 4 this year, in Nasyr-Kort, during a conflict of believers from the clans of Evloevs and Ozdoevs, a shootout broke out. After the incident, the head of Ingushetia said that for the time of settling the conflict the mosque will be closed, but on June 11 the decision to close it was postponed.

The trigger of the conflict in the mosque was the decision of Imam Khamzat Chumakov not to hold collective Friday prayers. The Muftiyat criticized this decision. Chumakov said that his opponents tried to provoke a mass brawl in the mosque; while Mufti of Ingushetia Isa-Hadji Khamkhoev said that the Muftiyat had not appointed Chumakov to the post of the Imam. Khamkhoev urged Chumakov to resign and give way to Rustam Chakhkiev, the Imam, appointed by the SCM.

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