MAKHACHKALA, January 22 /TASS/. More than 15,000 people are expected to attend an all-Dagestani action known as “mavlid’ (an event which Muslims hold to express joy to Prophet Muhammad) to protest against caricatures of the Prophet, a source at Dagestan’s Committee for freedom of conscience and interaction with public organizations told TASS on Thursday. The action is scheduled to take place outside the Central Jumah Mosque in Makachkala, the capital of Dagestan, after the Friday prayer at 12:30 Moscow time on January 23. It is expected to be attended by more than 15,000 people, including the head of the Republic of Dagestan, representatives of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims and the Council of Alims of Dagestan as well as the heads of the Council of Imams of cities and districts and prominent Islamic scholars from all parts of Dagestan, the source said.

According to Ramzan Abdulatipov, the head of Dagestan, the action should give a decent reply to provocations by destructive forces to tarnish Islam and its relics.

The mass action initiated by the head of Dagestan has been organized by the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Dagestan with assistance from Dagestan’s Committee for freedom of conscience and interaction with public organizations.

Similar actions in support of Prophet Muhammad have already been held in Ingushetia and Chechnya. A mass rally to protect the feelings of god-believers and Islamic values brought together more than a million Muslims last Monday. They condemned the immoral behavior of those who had printed the caricatures of Prophet Muhammad and prayed for peace, stability, prosperity and unity of the Muslims and for Russia.

Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of Chechnya, said that the Grozny rally had demonstrated the unity of the peoples of Russia.

“The participants in the rally demonstrated the staunch unity of the peoples of Russia. They showed that no one would be able to sow hostility among our peoples and religions,” Kadyrov wrote in social networks.

More than one million people took part in the “Love for Prophet Muhammad” action, according to the republic’s Interior Ministry. People from the neighboring republics of the North Caucasus /Dagestan, Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachayevo-Cherkessia/, Russia’s southern Stavropol territory, other parts of Russia and from foreign countries had arrived in Grozny. “They demonstrated the unity of Muslims and condemned any manifestations of terrorism and extremism,” Kadyrov stressed.

Sheikh Ali al-Jifri, a descendant to Prophet Muhammad; Ravil Gainutdin, the head of the Russian Mufti Council; Archbishp Varlaam of Makhachkala and Grozny and other officials delivered speeches at the rally which passed without any incidents or violations of public order.