Muslims of Orta Mosque pray outside the mosque in Batumi (Mari Nikuradze/ OC Media)
The Council of Europe’s Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) has criticised Georgia’s State Agency for Religious Issues for failing to fulfil its recommendations. [Read more…]
Muslims hold a prayer in front of the disputed building in Mokhe (Dato Parulava/Liberali)
Cases of violence based on religious intolerance between 2013–2016 went largely uninvestigated, according to the Georgian Public Defender’s 2017 human rights report. The report said it should be considered a ‘systematic problem’. [Read more…]
(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…]
(Tamaz Beridze /OC Media)
Muslims from the village of Mokhe in southern Georgia’s Adigeni Municipality claim they are facing threats from the local Christian authority. Archimandrite Nikoloz Getsadze of Zarzma Monastery warned Muslims to stay away from a disputed building claimed by both local Christians and Muslims, at a spot which muslims used to pray every Friday, local Muslim Tamaz Beridze told OC Media. [Read more…]
Muslims hold a prayer in front of the disputed building in Mokhe (Dato Parulava/Liberali)
The authorities of southern Georgia’s Adigeni District have began sealing off the ruins of the ‘disputed building’ in the village of Mokhe, which has been claimed both by local Christian and Muslim communities. Georgia’s National Agency for Cultural Heritage Preservation told OC Media that the building is being prepared to undergo conservation. [Read more…]
Georgian Muslims in Batumi held a protest on 26 May in the form of a ‘mosque opening ceremony’, on an empty plot of land. The community was refused permission to build a mosque on the site by Batumi City Hall on 11 May. [Read more…]
Muslims from Mokhe (Mari Nikuradze/OC Media)
Georgia’s Muslim community received a double blow on 11 May, when Batumi City Hall rejected a petition to construct a second mosque in the city and local authorities in the village of Mokhe rejected a request to transfer ruins in the village, allegedly of a mosque, to the local Muslim community. [Read more…]
Mosque in Batumi (OC Media)
Georgia’s Public Defender published its annual human rights report for 2016 on 1 April, describing the conditions of various groups in Georgia. [Read more…]
Sunday prayer in Batumi (OC Media)
Maia Urushadze is a Project Manager in the Peace and Integration Programme at the Centre for Cultural Relations — Caucasian House. Bennett Clifford is an independent analyst focusing on terrorism and religious conflict in the Caucasus.
The Administration of Muslims of All Georgia is supposed to represent the interests of all of Georgia’s Muslims. However, instead of responding to community concerns — it acts in concert with the state. To support the political integration of Georgia’s Muslims it must undertake reforms. [Read more…]
Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses in Zugdidi (OC Media)
In 2013–2016, 122 crimes were recorded against Jehovah’s Witnesses, up from only 12 in 2010–2012, a new report by the Human Rights Education and Monitoring Centre (EMC) claims. [Read more…]
