“The initiative of building new mosques belongs to ordinary men: if there is a strong community, funds for building, and sizeable enough congregation—then they are welcome to address the Mayor’s office like the Russian Orthodox Church did,” said Vladimir Resin, who oversees the programme of construction of 200 more churches in his interview to “Moskovskij Komsomolets” on August 30.

Mr Resin said that each religion is to be respected, and “there must be no discrimination”, but “it’s also important to take into account the number of followers of a certain creed in our capital”.

Sergey Sobyanin, temporary acting mayor of Moscow, recently spoke of the growing friendship between Moscow and Kazan during the celebration of Tatarstan Day in Russia’s capital city. He also mentioned that there are more than half a million Tatars currently living in Moscow. The number of Muslims of other nationalities accounts to no less than that.

Moscow Muslim communities are engaged in big educational work, in building up mutual understanding and friendship, and strengthening the stability of society.

It is worth reminding that there are only four acting mosques in Moscow. Russia Muftis Council has been asking the Mayor’s office to parcel out land for building ten small mosques in ten administrative districts of Moscow for two decades.

And it should be also kept in mind that our mosques were always been built on alms. In such case, the words of Moscow mayor’s advisor—“If there is a strong community, funds for building, and sizeable enough congregation”—prove the need to pay attention to the numerous inquiries of Russia Muftis Council.