Red Juma Mosque opens after 90 years!

The Red Juma Mosque was established in 1901 but closed down in the 1920s. Reportedly, it was used as a cinema and later as a restaurant that also served alcoholic drinks. In 2002 however, preparations began to reopen the Red Juma Mosque.

Tomsk Governor Sergey Jvachkin, Mayor Ivan Kleyin, Chechen Republic Parliament Speaker Dukuvah Adurakhmanov, and Chechen Republic Mutfi Salah Haci Meciev attended the ceremony and performed various functions to officiate the ceremony. The start of the ceremony included recitation from the Holy Quran and attendees were thanked for being present on the special occasion.

Once the ceremony was over, in order to mark the opening of the mosque, the attendees offered Friday congregational prayers afterwards. The Tomsk community had aided in renovations and preparations for rebuilding the mosque.

Islam is the country’s second-largest religion, behind the Russian Orthodoxy. There are some 23 million Muslims in the Russian Federation concentrated in the north of the Caucasus, representing roughly 15 percent of its 145 million population