DUSHANBE, June 7, 2011, Asia-Plus  -- The Dushanbe mayor’s office has temporarily permitted ten more mosques in the city to hold Friday prayers, Shamsiddin Nouriddinov, head of the Dushanbe department on religious affairs (DRA), said.

According to him, such a decision has been made because 18 Friday mosques functioning in Dushanbe are now not able to accommodate all those coming to perform Friday prayers.  “Because of shortage of seats, many people have been forced to perform prayers straight on the streets around the mosques,” said the DRA head, “If parishioners observe sanitary norms and do not violate the country’s religion law, the mosques that have received temporary permit for holding Friday prayers will be reorganized into Friday mosques.”

We will recall the country’s religion law singles out mosques for specific regulations and limited the number of mosques that may be registered within a given population area.  Friday mosques are allowed in districts with 10,000 to 20,000 persons; five-time mosques are allowed in areas with populations of 100 to 1,000.  The quotas are higher for Dushanbe, where Friday mosques may function in areas with 30,000 to 50,000 persons and five-time mosques are allowed in areas with populations of 1,000 to 5,000.