First mosque for inmates opened in Russia

Over 100 inmates at a time will be able to worship in the mosque which opened on Wednesday at a maximum security penal colony ocated in Russia’s Krasnoyarsk region, a spokeswoman for the regional department of the Federal Penitentiary Service told Itar-Tass. This is the first place of worship opened in regional colony, Yekaterina Brotsman said. Construction of the mosque was initiated by the prison administration. Around  850,000 rubles was donated by the Spiritual Directorate of the Muslims of the Krasnoyarsk Region as well as individual Krasnoyarsk Muslims for the construction of a one-storey wooden mosque. Krasnoyarsk region’s Mufti Gayaz-khazrat Fatkullin said “Over 100 Muslims serve their sentences in the colony, and they all took part in the construction of the mosque.” “I hope very much that our brothers have got back on the path of reformation and virtue - the path of Islam,” he added. The Mufti has contributed rugs, pictures and Islamic religious literature to the newly built mosque. More than 500 Muslim inmates serve their sentences in prisons of the Krasnoyarsk region. “Inmates first convicted for grave and severly grave crimes serve their sentences in the colony where the mosque was opened,” Yekaterina Brotsman said.