Islamic organizations of Ukraine are launching a guidance campaign aimed at Arab and Muslim EURO 2012 guests. The campaign’s main goal is to furnish the foreigners with information about locations of mosques, Islamic centers and halal food restaurants.
Mosques and Islamic organizations that provide spiritual and educational services for about 2 million Muslims of 46 million people of Ukraine are available in cities that host the tournament, including Kiev, the capital of Ukraine that has its own Islamic Cultural Center.
There are restaurants in Kiev and other cities, especially in areas having high density of Muslims that serve food religiously acceptable according to the bases of Islamic law. However some of those places not always use halal meat and some of them are situated far from stadiums and hotels.
Both All-Ukrainian Association of Social Organizations (AUASO) “ALRAID” and The Spiritual Administration of the Muslims of Ukraine “UMMA” are launching their guidance campaigns to help Arab and Muslim visitors to get to these restaurants and Islamic centers in the easiest way.
Telephone line
Basil Marii - the President of the AUASO “Alraid” - said in an interview for aljazeera.net that this campaign stipulates the opening of hotline by means of which Muslim visitors would be able to get all the necessary information they need including the addresses of Islamic organizations, cultural centers and mosques.
He also noted that the campaign includes providing the information about halal food restaurants and the most prominent landmarks of the host cities (Kiev, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Lviv).
Basil Marii also said that the goal of this campaign is to serve the EURO 2012 guests, show the positive picture reflecting the reality of Muslims in Ukrainian society and give them a good impression about Ukraine, its people and Muslims.
However the President of the AUASO “Alraid” noted that regardless of exorbitant price increase of hotels and apartments during the championship Islamic organizations, cultural centers and mosques for legal reasons cannot be used by fans for overnight stay.
In another context, Said Ismailov - the mufti of the Spiritual Administration of the Muslims of Ukraine “UMMA” - said that Islamic organizations, cultural centers and mosques will not provide marriage services. The matter is that they operate according to fatwa stipulating entering into a marriage at registry office first before concluding a marriage contract in accordance with shariah, because the former document is the only guarantee of wife’s rights in Ukraine.
He also explained that applications for marriage arrive every day and their number increases with the approach of the championship. He warned that marriage is difficult in Ukraine and there are a lot of cases of frauds.
Translated into English from Al-Jazeera
Related Links:
Information about Muslim facilities in the cities of Euro-2012
The Euro 2012 championship is an occasion to promote understanding and address racism
