Residents of a Bashkir village oppose the construction of a mosque on the site of a mass grave

Residents of the Bashkir village of Mrakovo opposed the construction of a mosque on the burial site of local residents and settlers from Ukraine and the Volga region who died in the 1920s. The website "Ufa Gubernskaya" published an open letter from the villagers who addressed the leaders of the Kugarchinsky district and the Republic of Bashkortostan with a request not to allow the construction of a mosque on this site.

"During the Civil War and the Holodomor, the dead in battles, the local population who died of starvation, as well as refugees from the Volga region and Ukraine were buried here. In the 1920s, this place was an abandoned wasteland on the banks of the Nazy-Yelga River. people were buried in a common pit without bothering with religious rites," the letter says.

The authors refer to the opinion of the clergy of the village, who consider it wrong to build a mosque on a mass grave. In addition, residents were "against the fact that migrant workers from the Caucasus were involved as builders, because even without them there is high unemployment among local residents."

The letter notes that "the site for the construction was chosen without taking into account the views of Muslims and representatives of other religions." The initiators of the construction were the former head of the district R. Mazitov, the head of the secretariat of the Kurultai V. Aznagulov, the general director of OAO Bashinformsvyaz S. Gaisin.

Residents of Mrakov are asking the leaders of the district and the republic to intervene in the situation and prevent the construction of a mosque at the burial site.

Sources

• Mosque on bones // Ufa provincial. 2008. November 5.