Muslims win their court case for the Soborna Mosque

Conflict continues in the Crimea over the refusal by the Simferopol City Council to allow the building in Simferopol of a Soborna (Assembly) Mosque on Yaltynska St.  However as from yesterday the ruling handed down by the Crimean Economic Court in February has come into force. This binds the Simferopol City Council to make an agreement with the Spiritual Directorate of Muslims to allocate land for an Assembly Mosque.

“We have after all stood this test. We are truly on the right and lawful path. There are a few formalities to go through, and then we’ll begin building. This will be a very large construction. Whether we do it in two or five years, Allah alone knows. However we will definitely build it!  We won’t move from here until we’ve built this wonderful mosque!”, the Deputy Mufti of the Crimea, Zakir Kurtnezirov, states.

However the formalities that remain include the signature to the agreement of the Mayor of Simferopol Gennady Babenko who has spoken out publicly against the building of the Soborna Mosque.

It was not possible to find out whether he would sign the agreement since he had left the Crimea. Nor did the Secretary of the City Council prove to be at his place, and the press service refused to make any comment.

The First Deputy Head of the Crimean Tatar Mejilis Refat Chubarov would appear to have an action plan should the officials try to sabotage things.

“If the Simferopol executive committee digs their heels in, we hope that other state bodies will act in accordance with the law and that the State Bailiff’s Service will use legal means to force the officials to implement the court ruling. We will simply force the prosecutor’s office to take all measures to ensure that Gennady Babenko, want to or not, does still carry out the requirement of the law and signs all necessary documents”.  He added that he was convinced that construction of the Mosque would begin in May already.

www.radiosvoboda.org  (abridged)