The Vakhdat city court has deprived Turajonzoda’s family mosque of its status of Friday mosque. From now on the mosque is allowed to perform fivefold daily prays only.

The Committee for Religious Affairs has limited Muhammadiya mosque’s activity on December 13 last year for performing Oshuro religious ceremony, which is usually performed by Shia Muslims.

In his interview to AP one of the mosque’s founders Hoji Akbar Turajonzoda said the regional court did not listen to their arguments and approved the appeal filed by the Committee for Religious Affairs. He said for the first time in human history the government structure closes the mosque.

“It seems that Tajikistan is an exclusion where government structures are allowed to close mosques. This is an insult when the House of Allah is closed on behalf of the government’s name. This is a tragedy for us and visitors of our mosque who visited it for 20 years,” Turajonzoda said.

He also said that his family is not going to appeal against the decision since it does not believe in justice in the country. “Both the Committee and the court performed a political order. They did not follow the country’s legislation,” the founder of Muhammadiya mosque said.