Ingush activists treat control of wedding corteges as good idea

Clergymen of Ingushetia are drafting their common position about the length of wedding motor corteges and the fines to be imposed for violating the rules for organizing weddings, the assistant to the republic's Mufti has stated. The imposition of sanctions for violators is justified if the clergy and authorities strictly control the enforcement of the rules, public figures believe.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Imams of mosques and the elders of the Kantyshevo village in the Nazran District of Ingushetia decided that wedding corteges should consist of a maximum of four cars. Violators of the new rule were threatened with fines.

The reason for discussing the problem was the "wedding" accident – in September, participants in the wedding cortege, trying to overtake each other, committed a road accident in which three persons died. After that, Isa Khamkhoev, the Mufti of Ingushetia, called on the clergy "to explain that Islam is a religion of moderation, in which there is no place for such rivalry."

According to Timur Akiev, the head of the Ingush branch of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", the clergy had come forward with similar initiatives before, but there was no control over the observance of the rules.

Musa Khamkhoev, a member of the Public Council of the city of Sunzha, has expressed hope that tough sanctions would be imposed on violators.