RUSSIA-KORAN FESTIVAL Moscow hosts inaugural edition of international Koran festival

Record ID: 147070

  • Title: RUSSIA-KORAN FESTIVAL Moscow hosts inaugural edition of international Koran festival
  • Date: 15th July 2015
  • Summary: MOSCOW, RUSSIA (JULY 13, 2014) (REUTERS) ***WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** EXHIBITION STAND DISPLAYING RELIGIOUS BOOKS BOOKS ABOUT ISLAM ON TABLE VARIOUS OF MAN DRAWING CALLIGRAPHY, ISLAMIC ART IN BACKGROUND VARIOUS OF SILK CARPET WITH VERSES FROM KORAN MEN PRAYING VARIOUS OF KORANS ON DISPLAY EXHIBITION STANDS AND PEOPLE WALKING BY WOMAN READING ISLAMIC FASHION STA
  • Embargoed: 30th July 2015 13:00
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  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA8LPLVVAACZFK38UPFC64AG1GA
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Russian is holding the inaugural edition of an international Koran festival in its capital Moscow.
    The week-long festival was organised by the Council of Muftis of Russia along with the department of culture at the Iranian embassy in Moscow.
    The festival features exhibitions of Islamic art from around the world, fashion, books and learning resources that include online resources applications and technology.
    One of the main attractions at the festival is an unusual silk carpet with verses from the Koran woven in, which the cultural attache of Iranian embassy in Moscow, Reza Maleki, says took six people six years of 24 hour work to make it.
    The exhibition drew participation from Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkey and India, as well as organising countries Russia and Iran.
    Antique books, calligraphy and carpet work were on display at the Islamic Cultural Centre, as part of the exhibition.
    Organisers wanted the festival to fall during the holy month of Ramadan, a time of fasting, prayer and reflection for Muslims around the world. The month of Ramadan, according to Islamic doctrine, is when the Koran was first revealed to Prophet Mohammad.
    The launch of the festival in Moscow drew a large crowd of Muslim community in the Russian capital.
    Head of the Islamic Culture Communications organisation in Iran, Mohammad-Ali Taskhiri, who was a guest at the official opening of the event, addressed attendants.
    "If difficulties become so entangled, like a dark night, the only path to salvation is the Koran," he said.
    Mehdi Sanaei, Iran's ambassador to Moscow, said the festival falling at the same time as Ramadan was a blessing.
    "The launch of this festival and exhibition falls in the holy month of Ramadan, this is a joyful and blessed time, the month of Ramadan. It is the month of the Koran and the month of honouring the Koran, and this time that has been picked (for this festival) is very fitting."
    Organisers said the festival was linked to the development and upcoming September opening of a new mosque in the capital.
    The Council of Muftis of Russia deputy chairman Rushan Abbyason said such events were a key way of informing the wider public of Islam's message of peace.
    "Undoubtedly this festival bears a very timely and important mission - to open the holy Koran to a wider public from a new angle. Not only to acquaint them with holy wisdom and eternal values that should become the basis of the everyday life of a pious Muslim, but also with the sciences which arose thanks to the holy scripture."
    Around 14 percent of the Russian population is Muslim and Islam is the country's second most widely professed religion.
    A majority of the Muslim population in Russia is concentrated at North Caucasus republics and among the population of Tatarstan and Bashkortostan residing in the middle of Volga Basin.
    Moscow's Muslim population has grown significantly in recent years with millions of people from post-Soviet Central Asian and Caucasus countries migrating to Russia's traditionally Orthodox Christian and Slavic heartland every year.
    Official statistics put the number of legal immigrants who are given work permits at around one million annually, but Fund Migration XXI Century, a Moscow-based non-governmental organization supported by the World Bank, estimates that 4-8 million people also enter illegally every year to work.
    The inaugural edition of the International Koran Festival in Russia is open to the public until Friday (July 17) and entrance is free.
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