Chechnya took a step closer to its predominant Islamic faith yesterday by announcing that Europe's largest mosque would be built in the shattered capital, Grozny, and that "one-armed bandit" gaming machines would be banned across the republic.
Ramzan Kadyrov, the deputy prime minister, whose private army is said to run Chechnya under brutal martial law, demonstrated his Islamic credentials when he gave the country's estimated 1,000 gaming halls a week to close. The Itar-Tass news agency quoted him as saying: "One-armed bandits are against Islamic norms ... I give these bloodsucking businessmen one week. If they don't comply, I will smash their installations myself." The machines "acted like drugs" on children.
His plans included a 10,000-capacity mosque. "Grozny has not built a single mosque since the 1930s, when all mosques were destroyed," Mr Kadyrov said in reference to the Stalinist purge of religion. |