Lawyer explains whether it is legal to perform namaz on the subway

November, cold, evening, residential area – and an unexpected picture: a dark-skinned young man spread a rug right on the asphalt. He knelt down facing the Warsaw Highway (that is, to the east) and, apparently, was about to pray. Passers-by look with polite bewilderment, but still do not ask questions: perhaps the one or she who shouts something in the spirit of “Man, what have you fallen from an oak tree?! This is not a mosque for you!” has not yet passed by.

There is no doubt: she will come… I give you my guarantee. Despite the growing trend towards tolerance and mutual tolerance in recent years, Moscow has not yet learned to forgive open violations of the “this is how it is” principle.

In the last few months, such cases have become more frequent in Moscow. Citizens come across Muslims praying on the streets, in shopping centers, in the subway, and at train stations. The explanation is quite simple: where the hour of prayer finds a Muslim, there he hurries to perform this prayer. Moscow is a multi-religious and multi-ethnic city, but the “Walking Mosque” program has not yet appeared in the capital. So it’s no wonder that not everyone can get to the mosques in Otradnoye, on Poklonnaya Gora or on Prospekt Mira. We have to get out.

It would seem that the universal question that should be asked in such a situation should be simple: “Is this person bothering someone?” Most likely, the answer will be “no” – and this will solve a million issues not only with Muslims praying in the street, but with many other, um, minorities.

For example, an analogy arises with women breastfeeding in public places – in cafes, parks, museums, in waiting rooms at train stations or airports. If a woman carefully covers herself with a scarf and doesn’t force anyone to admire her bust, she’s definitely not interfering. However, there will certainly be people who want to reprimand her.

This begs the question: if it is indecent for Muslims to pray on the street, then is it decent for Orthodox Christians traveling on a bus to cross themselves when the golden domes of churches flash through the window? If it is implied that we live in a secular state, then no religion should have “privileges” of this kind. Although, most likely, everything does not depend on privileges at the state level, but solely on the issue of public perception: so far the Orthodox are in the majority, which means that their characteristic behavior is perceived as acceptable.

We can only hope that we can do without excesses in one direction or another: with all due respect to modern Europe, I would not like to consider the Christmas tree a symbol that offends the feelings of Muslim believers (similar messages are already coming from France).

“In the fall of 2022, on the first non-residential floor of our apartment building, the local religious organization of Muslims “Truth” began religious activities,” says Vitaly Koldovsky, a resident of the Dmitrovsky district, in a letter to the editor of MK. – We are talking about setting up an ordinary mosque in the house. We are forced to listen to daily loudspeaker-amplified prayers from early morning until late at night. The sound insulation promised by the organizers was not done professionally.

In addition, during the week, and especially on Fridays, there is “pandemonium” in the yard. Moreover, on Fridays and holidays, worshipers, according to Koldovsky, pray right on the playground, prudently equipped with a rubber covering. And the neighbors are also concerned about the catering unit installed in the prayer house with “high-power kitchen equipment” – as residents of the house assume, the equipment has not been approved by the fire inspectorate and Rospotrebnadzor, as it should be in catering establishments.

However, it’s not only and not so much about everyday inconveniences, Vitaly Koldovsky says frankly. “The residents of the house profess a different faith, and, frankly speaking, we absolutely do not like this defiant behavior of adherents of Islam,” writes a resident of the Dmitrovsky district. According to the old-timer, “besides people from the Caucasus and Central Asia, there are many Arabs, judging by their clothes, from the countries of the Persian Gulf, as well as blacks from Muslim countries in Africa.”

“The sermons do not even hide the right of Islam to dominate other religions and the advantage of Muslims in everything,” continues Vitaly Koldovsky. “We live like on a volcano, in some kind of alarming, frightening environment.

A prayer house in a residential area – let’s tell you for those who have no experience of such a neighborhood – most often is not very noticeable visually. However, after observing the flow of people in the yard, you soon realize: there is some kind of “interest organization” operating here. Passers-by purposefully walking through the yard at a certain time of the day are strictly men of a characteristic appearance, canonical for religious Muslims: strict clothing and most often dark, heads covered (including in the summer, when most secular men do not wear head coverings). Beards are sometimes combined with mustaches, sometimes not – but most often they are present.

On holidays, near mosques and houses of worship there are many men of the most ordinary appearance – but, as in the case of all other religions, those who practice prayer every day have a special look. Therefore, active members of the community – those who go to the house of worship for sermons, meetings, meals and daily prayers – appear in a way that does not allow neighbors to forget: this is a place for believing (observant) Muslims.

“Openly professing” one’s faith is considered correct in Christianity as well. However, in the case of, for example, Orthodoxy, parishioners of numerous churches do not provoke such a reaction from their neighbors for two reasons. First: Orthodox Christians are more “at home” for Moscow than Muslims, as is historically the case. And the second is that in an Orthodox church there are often more women; there is no purely masculine appearance of the parish here.

Nevertheless, it seems that we are now seeing some qualitative changes. From the position of a secular state, there is no difference between the ummah and Orthodox parishes – which means that wearing religious clothing in public space, and sermons in which (how else?) the truth of this particular faith is affirmed are legal. Another question is that Orthodox prayer houses do not exist in the residential sector in our times – because there are enough free-standing churches. But in Islam, a more “network-centric” religion, there is no clear hierarchy, and the community can organize a house of worship in any non-residential premises, if this does not contradict the laws.

“Namaz in a public place, if it does not interfere with the operation of transport, road traffic and the person praying does not carry any slogans, is in principle legal,” lawyer Alexey Golubev told MK. – Thus, the prayer of, for example, a bus driver during a flight should first be considered by the carrier’s management as a potential disciplinary offense, and then by the police as a possible administrative offense. But since there have been no complaints, the relationship with the employee is probably more valuable to the carrier’s management than a minute or two of graphics. Considering the labor shortage, this is quite logical.

One more thing is worth noting: religious Muslims who come to mosques and houses of worship are most often impeccably, even emphatically polite. But this does not mean “pliable”: politeness can also be combined with unwavering persistence and intolerance to objections. Christianity, by the way. also does not require humility towards absolutely everyone from a believer (including at the cost of renouncing the confession of faith), and Islam does not require universal humility at all.