Putin opens largest mosque in Moscow, hopes it will be deterrent against IS

Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Wednesday opened one of the biggest mosques in Europe, warning against the lure of religious militants as the government frets over its citizens fighting for the Islamic State (IS) group.

Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas were the guests of honour at the unveiling of the 20,000-square-metre mosque in the Russian capital. 

"This mosque will become an extremely important spiritual centre for Muslims in Moscow and the whole of Russia," Putin said in a televised speech, on the eve of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, known as Kurban Bairam in Russia.

"It will be a source for education, spreading humanist ideas and the true values of Islam."

“Terrorists from the so-called Islamic State actually cast a shadow on the great global religion of Islam,” he added. “Their ideology is built on hate.”

The turquoise-domed mosque can host over 10,000 worshippers and is one of the largest in the country that will help to serve Russia's estimated population of 20 million Muslims.

The New York Times (NYT) reported that a wealthy Russian oil tycoon paid for most of the construction costs, which was around $170mn.

Other foreign governments donated to the construction, including Turkey and Kazakhstan. Abbas also gave $25,000 in donations.

The mosque, called the Moscow Cathedral Mosque, took a decade to complete and caused controversy due to the destruction of an earlier mosque that had stood on the site and that was 100 years old.

Ildar Hazrat Alyautdinov, the senior imam at the Moscow Cathedral Mosque and the mufti of Moscow, told NYT that public opinion is behind the decision not to build more mosques in the Russian capital.

“When we studied the situation, we found that those who initiated such a mood were from the Russian Orthodox Church,” he said. “Their activists would rile people up - going door to door telling people that the mosque should not be built. Maybe it is not their official position but the work of activists.”

A member of the Kremlin’s human rights council on religious issues, Maksim Shevchenko, was cited as saying that Moscow only has four official mosques.

'IS compromises Islam to sow hate'

Moscow - which has battled an armed Islamic insurgency in its volatile southern Caucasus region - is worried about the pull of extremist groups, especially IS fighters in Syria and Iraq. 

Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev last week estimated that some 1,800 Russian citizens were fighting for the radical group. 

Putin in his speech lashed out at religious armed groups for their "attempts to cynically exploit religious feeling for political ends".

"We see what is happening in the Middle East where terrorists from the so-called Islamic State group are compromising a great world religion, compromising Islam, in order to sow hate," he said.

Putin was later set to meet Erdogan for talks that were expected to focus on the Syrian conflict, as the West frets about a build-up of Russian forces in the war-torn country.

The United States says Moscow has recently sent troops, tanks and fighter jets to Syria, sparking fears that Russia could be looking to join the fight alongside its ally President Bashar al-Assad.

Turkey and Russia stand on opposing sides over the crisis in Syria, with Ankara backing the rebels trying to overthrow Assad.

Turkey is currently waging what it describes as a two-pronged "war on terror" against both IS and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) - although so far airstrikes have overwhelmingly focused on bases of the Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq.

Moscow has been on a diplomatic push to try to get western and regional powers involved in a coalition against IS to join forces with Assad.