Karelian Muftiate is a regional organization of Muslims of the Republic of Karelia . It was created in 2001 , on the basis of the association of the communities of Petrozavodsk , Kostomuksha and Kondopoga [1] . The leader is Sheikh Visam Ali Bardwil , appointed by Ravil Gainutdin .
Background
In 1999, in Petrozavodsk, Russian Muslim Oleg (Mustafa) Starodubtsev and a Libyan- born medical student El Bardville Visam Ali Mohamed Ibrahim began to actively form a new Muslim community, attracting mainly representatives of traditionally Christian peoples (Russians, Karelians, Finns) and Arab students, studied at universities in the city. In 2000, the community was registered as part of DUMER , and Visam Bardville became its imam-khatib. On August 15, 2000, the community received permission to build a mosque in a rather prestigious area of Petrozavodsk. The allocation of the site was authorized by the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning of the Petrozavodsk Administration. After the plans for the construction of the mosque were made public, a wave of protests followed, as a result of which the construction was frozen. By the end of 2000, Bardville transferred the Kostomuksha community to the DUMER jurisdiction and initiated the creation of a Chechen Muslim community in Kondopoga, registered in early 2001 . Thus, he created the necessary base for registration in the republic of a centralized Muslim structure, from which, however, representatives of the Turkic Muslim communities of Karelia, reunited in 2001 at the Central House of Duma , split off.
Links
- “Why do Russians accept Islam?” Galina Sapozhnikova, Komsomolskaya Pravda, 10/20/2003