Kazan will discuss peculiarities of the Muslim architecture

Next SaturdayKazan will host another session of the youth Muslim club “Ghulistan”. The meeting of the club will be devoted to “the architecture of the Muslim countries: spiritual sources and cultural traditions”.

The lecture about architectural peculiarities of the Muslim temples will be delivered by the teacher of the Kazan State architectural academy L. Sattarova. There will also be a presentation of the designers of the Muslim quarters in the Tatar settlement.

Taken From: http://eng.islam.ru/press/rus/2003-09-17/?single=1151

There is a suggestion to ban the erection of the Tyumen mosque on behalf from the orthodox

The chairperson of theTyumen regional public organization for the Orthodox morality Tatyana Ghuskova on behalf of the “Orthodox community” addressed the local government with letter of protest against the erection of the mosque of the CCDM. The letters were sent to the governor of theTyumen region, the chairman of the regional Duma, the chief federal inspector and the mayor of Tyumen.

The erection of the Muslim religious complex in Tyumen was called “a provocation towards harsh destabilization of the situation in the spheres of cultural, national and religious relations”. According to T. Ghuskova, the erection of the mosque is “an artificial Islamization”. “Projects,- she writes,- of such scale (that can be called a conspiracy) must not be realized in the civilized society, in the regional center of the region that is not traditionally Islamic, without a local (or even regional) referendum in accordance with the federal and regional legislation”.

We hope that the provocative idea of defending the orthodox morality via ban on erection of mosque pushed forward by T. Ghuskova will find no support. Islam appeared in theTyumen region several ages before the Christian missionaries, thus it is absurd to question the necessity of reviving spirituality and morality of the Muslim in the region.

Taken From: http://eng.islam.ru/press/rus/2003-09-17/?single=1151

Norway: More and more embracing Islam

Oslo,

The number of new Muslims inNorway has been gradually increasing, according to a handout from the Islamic Community Center here, which added that there were 500 new Muslims last year, and this has brought the total number to 80,000.

The statement indicated that 50,000 of them are members of either Islamic Centers or other Islamic organizations, and went to show that most the Muslims in the country are ethnic Pakistanis, followed by Turks, Moroccans, Iraqis, Somalis, and Bosnians, who number not less than 5,000.

The handout discloses that there are 69 mosques in Norway, 24 of which are to be found in the capital city,Oslo, where there is a large concentration of Muslims. Among the immediate problems facing the Muslim community here is the organization of prayer and fasting times, particularly the latter, because in certain seasons of the year when there is continuous sunshine and at certain seasons there is continuous darkness for months.

 The “Islam in Norway” newsletter goes on to say that another problem is that of the second generation Muslims in the country, most of them do not even know their mother tongue, a problem that prevails in all the European countries with Muslim minorities.

Taken From: http://www.islamicnews.org/english/en_daily.html