Residents of Chechnya criticize pompous celebration of Prophet Muhammad's birthday

On November 20, the authorities of Chechnya celebrated the birthday of Prophet Muhammad with charity events and fireworks, and each family of the boys born on that day got 100,000 roubles.

Some local residents believe the large-scale celebration of the date organized by the authorities was unreasonable.

"Our government simply uses the date for its own PR. This is a clear innovation, so I am not one of those who consider the today's date to be a Muslim holiday," Shamil, a resident of Grozny, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

In recent years, in Chechnya, the attitude to religion has seriously changed, believes Movsar, a resident of Grozny. "Our leaders have been paying excessive attention to the external evidence of religion, and not Islam itself, and this is clearly seen in recent years. All those huge mosques, which are not fully filled even during the Friday prayers, pompous celebrations of Edi al-Adha and Eid al-Fitr … The birthday of the Prophet is celebrated every year with fireworks. How much money is spent on it? It's one thing to give out alms this month, to help the needy, but it is unacceptable to have pompous celebrations like at our place," Movsar told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on November 21, 2018 at 03:59 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.