Council of Muftis of Russia and FSEP sign cooperation agreement

The head of Council of Muftis of Russia (CMR) Ravil Gaynetdin believes
that Islamic centers in the country must help the prison system work
with Muslim convicts, RIA Novosti reports.

“We don’t have the moral right to leave our co-religionists during
hard times alone with their problems”, - he said in the Cathedral
Mosque during the signing of the agreement between the CMR and the
Federal Service for Execution of Punishment (FSEP) today.

Gaynetdin said that help for Muslim convicts was rare. It was hard for
Islamic religious workers to provide help and literature for the
convicts.

He said that the CMR had been trying to improve relations with the
FSEP for decades.

The head of the FSEP, Alexander Reymer, said that today there are
approximately 40 mosques and 200 prayer rooms. He said that this is
not enough, but he also expressed confidence that this agreement will
aid in the process of mosque construction, and for their part they
will support the initiatives of Muslims. Reymer failed to give the
exact number of Muslim convicts.