Residents of three NCFD republics come to religious holiday in Shali

The celebration of the birthday of Prophet Muhammad was held in the newly opened mosque "Muslims' Pride" in the city of Shali; tens of thousands of believers took part in it. The crowded celebration was provided by authorities' efforts, participants in the celebrations say.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that in Chechnya, they began large-scale celebrations of Prophet's birthday in 2009.

This year the birthday of Prophet Muhammad fell on November 9. "The main celebrations on this occasion took place yesterday, and today in the mosque named after Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in Shali, which is also called the 'Muslims' Pride', tens of thousands of believers gathered from yesterday evening, both from different parts of the republic, and from the neighbouring Ingushetia, Dagestan and other places," a source from the Muftiate told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Participants of religious celebrations in Shali have noted the crowded nature of celebrations.

"It’s hard to say exactly how many people were there, but the mosque was completely full, plus there were people in the street. Thus, there could have been some 40-50 thousand, if not more," Eli, a resident of the Chechen capital, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

He believes that people were gathered in Shali by authorities. "All the Imams and Turkkhs (Muslim Messengers) were instructed to organize people, plus local authorities sent people; thus, they managed to pack not only to fill the entire mosque, but also the entire territory," said a Grozny resident.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on November 9, 2019 at 12:14 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.