Putin opens huge mosque in Russian capital The True Path

Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on
Wednesday opened one of the biggest mosques in Europe,
warning against the lure of militants as the government frets
over its citizens fighting for the Daesh group.

Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Palestinian
President Mahmud Abbas were the guests of honor at the
unveiling of the 20,000-square meter mosque in the Russian
capital.

“This mosque will become an extremely important spiritual
center for Muslims in Moscow and the whole Russia,” Putin
said in a televised speech.

“It will be a source for education, spreading humanist ideas
and the true values of Islam.”

The turquoise-domed mosque can host over 10,000
worshippers and is one of the largest in the country that will
help to serve Russia’s estimated 20 million Muslims.
The $170 million (150 million-euro) project, which took a
decade to complete, caused controversy over the
destruction of an earlier mosque that stood on the site.
Moscow — which has battled an insurgency in its volatile
southern Caucasus region — is worried about the pull of
extremist groups, especially Daesh militants fighting in Syria
and Iraq.

Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev last week estimated
that some 1,800 Russian citizens are fighting for the radical
group.

Putin in his speech lashed out at rebel groups for their
“attempts to cynically exploit religious feeling for political
ends.”

“We see what is happening in the Middle East where
terrorists from the so-called Daesh group are compromising
a great world religion, compromising Islam, in order to sow
hate,” he said.

Putin was later set to meet Erdogan for talks that were
expected to focus on the Syrian conflict, as the West frets
about a buildup of Russian forces in the war-torn country.
The United States says Moscow has recently sent troops,
tanks and fighter jets to Syria, sparking fears that Russia
could be looking to join the fight alongside its ally President
Bashar Assad.

Turkey and Russia stand on opposing sides over the crisis
in Syria, with Ankara fiercely backing the rebels trying to
oust Assad.

Source:arabnews