The opening of Moscow's newest mosque after a decade of reconstruction work on 23 September—the eve of the Muslim holiday of Kurban Bayram—was divisive and strongly criticised. For the Kremlin, though, it was a carefully choreographed event with far-reaching political goals.
Whatever the circumstances, for the majority of Muslims the event was a joyous one, offering hope for the future—if not strictly a resolution to the community's problems.
The wild world of reconstruction
Who doesn't know that Russia is the largest country on earth? There's no shortage of land here. Empty and abandoned plots proliferate in Moscow. Nevertheless, excluding the North Caucasus and Tatarstan, there is somehow not enough land for mosques in Russia, and every now and then a group of ‘concerned citizens' appear to protest against their construction.
