RUSSIA RELIGION NEWS


Muslim leaders raise alarm about public danger

ISLAMIC CULTURAL CENTER OPPOSES OPENING MOONSHINE MUSEUM IN KAZAN

Interfax-Religiia, 9 February 2018

 

Representatives of the "Iman" Center of Islamic Culture in Kazan sent to the authorities of Tatarstan and Kazan a request to investigate the legality of the proposed opening of a museum of moonshine production in Kazan.

 

"We sent our appeals to the president of Tatarstan, the State Council of the republic, and the city government of Kazan," the chairman of the Iman Center, Nail Garipov, told Interfax.

 

He explained that in the appeal they ask for an investigation of the plans for such a museum to determine its compliance with legislation on the advertising of alcohol.

 

Representatives of the Iman Center learned from news media about the plan for opening a museum of moonshine [in Russian: "samogon"] production in the capital of Tatarstan and they were upset that there will appear in the center of the city a place where the drinking of alcoholic beverages will be popularized.

 

N. Garipov thinks that a moonshine museum "is not the most critically needed museum."

 

The appeal from the public leaders says that the original function of any museum is enlightenment; but in the case of a moonshine museum, where it is planned to organize alcohol tasting, this function will obviously be violated.

 

"If this is the case, then they may begin conducting excursions for schoolchildren to this museum. If this were a museum where they described the harm that alcohol causes people and the dangerous consequences for the population of moonshine production, then one might welcome the appearance of such a cultural institution, but in this case it is planned to create a "feeling of pride" in visitors by stories about the history of the production of moonshine," the Iman Center's appeal says.

 

Meanwhile, in the Kazan city hall they said that they have not participated in the creation of this museum and that apparently a private individual is organizing it.

 

Interfax has still not managed to get comments from the organizer of the museum, although the website of the intended institution calls the museum of moonshine an anti-alcohol museum with tasting.

 

The attendance rules say, specifically, that persons in a state of alcohol, drug, or toxic inebriation will not be admitted into the museum. Also persons will not be admitted with a firearm, pellet gun, or bayonet, or models (souvenir patterns) of such weapons. (tr. by PDS, posted 11 February 2018)


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