Friday prayer at Batumi's Orta mosque. Worshipers pray in the street outside the mosque. (Mari Nikuradze/OC Media)
A court in the city of Batumi, on Georgia’s Black Sea coast, has begun considering a lawsuit brought by a group of Muslims against the city authorities over their refusal to grant a construction permit for a mosque. [Read more…]
Muslims of Orta Mosque pray outside the mosque in Batumi (Mari Nikuradze/ OC Media)
A controversy over the construction of a second mosque in Batumi has resurfaced after the new head of Adjara, Tornike Rizhvadze, promised it would go ahead. Batumi’s Muslims have long complained that the city’s only current mosque is too small, but Rizhvadze faced criticism for his decision from a number of ultra-conservative groups including the March of Georgians. [Read more…]
Mosque-goers being detained in Makhachkala (golosislama.com)
A resident of Daghestan has accused the authorities of pressuring him to confess to being an ‘extremist’ over a video he shared on social network VKontakte five years ago. The man, who asked not to be named, told OC Media he is being accused of inciting ethnic hatred over the post.
2 June protest in Magas (Batyr Bogatyryov /YouTube)
Hundreds rallied in front of the government offices and parliament in Ingushetia’s capital Magas on Saturday, demanding the return of direct elections for the head of the republic. The Council of Teips (clans) of the Ingush People tried to obtain a permit to hold the demonstration, but after being denied, decided to go ahead anyway, Caucasian Knot reports. [Read more…]
Muslims of Orta Mosque pray outside the mosque in Batumi (Mari Nikuradze/ OC Media)
An initiative group of Georgian Muslims in Batumi has rejected an offer from Mayor Lasha Komakhidze for a building permit for a second mosque in the city. Komakhidze said in a meeting on 3 April that if land bought by the group for the mosque was transferred to the state sponsored Administration of All Muslims of Georgia, and if they withdrew a court appeal over previous building permit rejections, a permit would be issued.
(Dato Parulava /Liberali)
After a dispute broke out between Christians and Muslims over the ruins of an old building in Mokhe, a village in Adigeni Municipality, the government created a commission to determine the building’s historical belonging. After two years of work, the commission decided not to grant ownership of the ruins to either side. Instead, it declared them a cultural heritage site, named ‘Disputed Building’. [Read more…]
Grisha Beridze (Dato Parulava /OC Media)
After a dispute broke out between Christians and Muslims over the ruins of a building in the village of Mokhe, in southwest Georgia’s Adigeni Municipality, the government stepped in to resolve the situation by pledging to build a new mosque.
A 33-year-old ex–Salafi preacher was shot dead in Daghestan on 6 January. Saygidakhmed Magomedov was killed near his house in the village of Mutsalaul, in Daghestan’s Khasavyurt District.
The mosque in the Village of Shamkhal (kavkaz-uzel.eu)
A salafi mosque near the Daghestani capital Makhachkala has remained closed for over half a year, despite attempts by local worshippers to reopen it. [Read more…]
Pervomayskoye (Alarabiy 93 /Google Maps)
More than 30 men have been detained in Daghestan after Friday prayers. According to witnesses the men were questioned, photographed, and fingerprinted at a police station.
