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The eighth educative caravan “Muhammad: mercy for the worlds” was finished on February 2013 in the town of Gorlovka (Donetsk region).

The caravan that started up on January 23 in the Central mosque (city of Donetsk) visited seven other cities and towns across three Ukrainian regions, Lugansk, Stakhanov, Torez, Alchevsk, Zaporozhiye, Sverdlovsk and Gorlovka.

Such events under “Alraid” guidance were held in the two Ukrainian regions with dense Muslim populations, accounting for 40 percent of the Ukrainian Muslim residents which total number reaches 1.5 million. These regions are Donbass where the caravan was held jointly with the Religious Administration of Muslims of Ukraine “Ummah”, and the Crimean Autonomous Republic where it was organized in close cooperation with the Religious Administration of Muslims of Crimea.

In this year the campaign had a new “zest”, bill boards with sayings of outstanding Western thinkers about the personality of Prophet Muhammad (may be peace and blessings upon him).

This regular annual event aims to revive Islamic cultural and religious traditions in the Ukrainian Muslim community, to introduce non-Muslims to personality and teachings of Prophet Muhammad (may be peace and blessings upon him), and to Muslim national cultures.

It’s the reason why the caravan events are not merely religious gatherings but rather cultural and educative meetings, where there’s a room for concerts, exhibitions and tete-a-tete contacts of all the concerned ones with the Ukrainian Muslim community members.

The mass-scale Muslim cultural and educative event watched by the city for the first time

The caravan finished in the town of Gorlovka, which history has never seen such a mass-scale Muslim cultural event. The local Palace of Culture “Komsomolsky” accommodated more than five hundred people, not only town residents, but comers from other Donbass localities.

The meeting was attended by Mr.Petr Cherkas, deputy major; Mr.Sergey Aniskovets, a city council deputy from the Party of Regions (a major political party in Ukraine), muftis of the Religious Administration of Muslims of Ukraine “Ummah” and the Religious Center of Muslims of Ukraine, imams of mosques, leaders of religious communities and other honored guests. They all received memorial presents from Mr.Hamsa Isa, “Alraid” representative in Donbass.

Muftis are two but subject is one: Prophet as a model for Muslims to follow in daily life

Mr.Muhammad Alustaz, imam of the Central Mosque in Lugansk, opened the meeting with traditional recitation of ayahs from the Holy Koran.

After that, Mr.Said-hazrat Ismagilov, Mufti of “Ummah”, reminded Muslims the religious mission of Prophet Muhammad (may be peace and blessings upon him), his moral behavior in daily life, his active and irrepressible stance towards life.

Mr.Ruslan-hazrat Adikeyev, Mufti of the Religious Center of Muslims of Ukraine, spoke about religious duties of Muslims by making references to the way of the last God’s Messenger.

Once the educative part ended, the ceremonial part began. Mr.Igor Kozlovsky, director of the Center for Religious Studies and International Religious Relations, Mr. Girfan Gildeyev, leader of the Muslim community “Ar-Rahim” (Gorlovka) and other honored guests delivered welcoming speeches and wished Ukrainian Muslims prosperity, good manners and well-being.

The program continued with the performance of the singers’ group “Donbass Tatarlary”, singers’ and dancers’ group “Fursanu Al-Amal” and other artistic groups. In fact, the festival atmosphere was being created by not only adults, as two little sisters, Karina and Amina from the town of Bryansk, performed the song “Rahman”, and three sisters, Safa, Marwa and Aziza, recited poems about Prophet (may be peace and blessings upon him).

The meeting ended up in a way traditional for Muslim events: supplication to the Most High for the good of our common motherland, Ukraine, for Muslim of this country and beyond it.