The mayor of Moscow says there are no plans to build a new mosque in the city, and says the "excessive" number of economic migrants was a "harmful thing".
Sergey Sobyanin said, "It has turned out that the praying Muslims are not all Russian citizens and they are not Moscow residents. They are labor migrants. There are only 10 percent of Moscow residents among them and building mosques for everyone who wants it - I think this will be over the top."
The mayor continued, "Muscovites now get irritated by people who speak a different language, have different manners, with aggressive behavior. This is not purely ethnic, but this is connected with some ethnic traits."
At the same time, Sobyanin explained that there are no ethnic enclaves in the city and expressed the hope that such enclaves would not ever appear as closed districts like that those that usually have a very high crime rate.
Russian Muslims did not welcome the Mayor SobyaninÂ’s statement. Co-chairman of the Councils of Muftis of Russia, Nafigulla Ashirov said that Muslims did not agree with SobyaninÂ’s plans and that they would, should the need arise, address President Putin with a request for help. |