MOSCOW, October 26 (Itar-Tass) — About 150,000 Moslems have taken part in Friday’s celebrations of the Islamic feast of Id al-Adha /known as Qurban Bairam in the Turkic-speaking world/ in Moscow, the city’s Deputy Mayor Alexander Gorbenko said at an operative meeting in the mayoralty.
He indicated that in spite of a traditionally dense concentration of believers at the sites of worship and in the places where the festive functions were held, there was not a single encroachment on public law and order. Also, the authorities did not register a single case of sacrifices outside the spots allotted especially for the purpose.
Gorbenko pointed out a certain decrease in the number of believers who took part in prayers and other events this year.
“The possible explanation is the weather that was bad enough,” he said.
As another explanation, Gorbenko mentioned the active efforts of the Moscow region authorities to organize the provisional sites where the feast was held.
More than twenty provisional sites were set up this year and this enabled many thousands of Moslem believers living or staying in the Moscow region to celebrate close to their homes.
“We’re really thankful to religious associations for a very scrupulous organization of the feast, since no big encroachments on public law and order have been registered,” Gorbenko said.
He said Moscow City’s agencies of power and Moslem public associations spent a whole month working out the details of how to organize the prayers and functions on the occasion of the main Islamic feast.