KHUAJND, August 20, 2008, Asia-Plus -- An official opening of a new mosque, which was built on a voluntary basis (hashar method; hashar is the Tajik tradition of voluntary work to benefit of the community), was held in the Punghoz jamoat, Sughd’s Asht district on August 20.  

            Speaking in an interview with Asia-Plus, Yunus Sharipov, a chief specialists with the Ministry of Culture’s department of religious affairs for Sughd, said that Tajik emigrants currently living Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had funded construction of the mosque.  

“The have provided funds and local residents have built the mosque, which can simultaneously receive up to 500 parishioners,” Sharipov said.  

This mosque has brought the number of large mosques in northern Tajikistan to 87, while there are also 917 small religious places for celebration of Muslim rites.