Chechen President demands that churchmen fix namaz hours

President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov held a meeting in Grozny with Sultan Mirzaev, Chairman of the local Spiritual Department of Moslems, and Adam Shakhidov, Director of the Information-Publishing Centre "Puts" (Way) named after Ahmat Kadyrov. In the course of the meeting, Mr Kadyrov expressed his serious discontent that the call to pray (azan) is made in the mosques of the republic not at the same time, but with essential time gaps.

"It's a big problem for the residents of the republic to fix exact time for mandatory prayers. Some mosques do it some 15-20 minutes earlier than the adjacent ones," President Kadyrov said at the meeting which was broadcast by the local TV Channel.

He ordered to draw up a unified calendar and a time-table of mandatory prayers - namaz, - made by Moslems five times a day.

Local observers note that the fact of Ramzan Kadyrov's personal involvement in every issue of everyday life, from addressing social problems to spiritual and moral matters, arouses questions in local people.

"Every day our TV programmes start and end with Kadyrov. They cover literally everything: his visit to some poultry farm and a trip to some locality, his discussing war on terror and construction issues, his visits to various establishments and so on. It looks like our ministers, MPs, Muftiyat and other bodies are absolutely incapable, and only through personal participation of Ramzan Ahmatovich problems in all spheres can be settled," said a source of the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

It should be noted here that Chechen authorities pay special attention to religion and spiritual-and-moral education of the growing generation; and Islam is more and more actively penetrating into the life of local residents, starting from the school bench. Local TV channels are permanently broadcasting religious programmes; a studio is at work translating Islamic animated and feature films into the Chechen language, etc.

Recently it was announced that schools in Chechnya will have special stands and banners with sayings from the Koran; writing-books for schoolchildren with the Moslem directory and picture of the main republic's mosque "Heart of Chechnya" on the cover are on sale. Note-books with religious texts were published under the initiative of the Muftiyat of Chechnya.

It was also announced that an Islamic radio channel will be soon on air. In Grozny, the Centre of Islamic Medicine - the largest in Europe - was opened; one of the streets in Grozny was named after Solsa-Hadji Yandarov, a famous Islamic religious figure, who lived in Chechnya in the beginning of the 20th century. Besides, inmates of the Chernokozovo Colony in Chechnya are dressed in Islam-styled clothes, while all the women working in official bodies of Chechnya must wear head scarves during working hours.

Let us remind you that last year under the order of President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov construction of a hafiz school for 100 pupils was launched in Khosi-Yurt village. The school will be named by Ramzan Kadyrov's senior brother Zelimkhan who died in 2004. Its construction will be over by this autumn. One more school of Koran reciters, who know the sacred book of Moslems by heart, will open in Grozny.

The "Caucasian Knot" reports that local residents are positive to these recent developments. In their opinion, the interest to religion should be brought up from childhood, "since a true believer will never do any harm to him/herself or other people."