Mufti Praises Muslim-Friendly Ukraine
“Everything is good in Ukraine, you cannot even imagine how well things are here! We all find a place in the sun and ground under our feet,” Ismagov, the head mufti of the Committee of Muslims of Ukraine wrote on Facebook, World Bulletin reported on Saturday, June 7.
“We never faced any Muslim massacres, murder of imams or ethnic cleansing. We built mosques anywhere we wanted and they were never destroyed,” he added.
The imam has praised the welcoming atmosphere Muslims have been living through for decades.
The friendly atmosphere was a stark contradiction with the Soviet-era when hundreds of thousands of Muslims were forced to leave their home country in Crimea under Stalin rule.
“The Holy Quran and its translations were never banned. We published Muslim newspapers, expressing our opinion without any censorship,” Ismagov noted.
“Muslims in Ukraine are an integral part of the country, part of its common history. We feel like home in Ukraine. It is our homeland.”
Abandon War
As threats of civil war escalated in Ukraine, the mufti urged fighters from both camps to leave Ukraine.
“Just take your ‘soldiers of fortune’ by hand and say strictly: There is nothing to do in Ukraine!” Ismagov said.
Ukraine has been gripped by six months of upheaval which ratcheted up tensions between Russia and the West to Cold War heights after huge protests forced Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych into exile.
The new national authorities in Kiev were not welcomed by Russia which organized a March referendum after which Crimes was officially annexed to Russia.
As of 2012 an estimated 500,000 Muslims lived in Ukraine and about 300,000 of them were Crimean Tatars. Today Islam is the largest minority religion in Ukraine after various forms of Christianity.
In the 2000 census Ukraine was home to 248,193 Crimean Tatars, 73,304 Volga Tatars, 45,176 Azeris, 12,353 Uzbeks, 8,844 Turks, 6,575 Arabs and 5,526 Kazakhs.
According to the Clerical Board of Ukraine's Muslims there were two million Muslims in Ukraine as of 2009.
Source: On Islam
