Muslim and Christian communities clash in Buknari village

By Khatia Bzhalava

Thursday, January 14

According to EMC- the Human Rights Education and Monitoring Centre, the conflict between Muslim and Christian communities over the mosque construction has been going on for a month.

According to the mayor of Chokhatauri municipality Irakli Kuchava, the local government and the police will do their best to resolve the problem without any excesses.

On Tuesday, the Muslim and Christian community clashed in Buknari village, in Chokhatauri municipality. The conflict which resulted in physical confrontation started as part of the Christian locals of the village oppose the Muslim community’s request for arranging a mosque. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia, one individual has been detained for attacking two people. Minors have been transferred to a hospital with head injuries and their lives are not in danger.

The Muslim community has been living in Buknari village for several decades now. They first settled in there 70 years ago and currently represent half of the local population. According to EMC- the Human Rights Education and Monitoring Centre, which responded to the conflict, the local Muslim community has been asking to build a mosque in the village since 2007. 10 months ago they bought a house in the village to perform religious services there, which resulted in the confrontation yesterday. According to EMC, Muslim residents claim that they were not going to build a mosque, as they did not want to irritate the neighboring Christians.

EMC notes that according to the Muslim community, some of the local Christians do not allow them to pray as they believe they do not ‘have the right’ to build a mosque on ‘the Christian land’. EMC states that the conflict over the issue has been ongoing for a month, mainly in the form of verbal confrontations. According to the Human Rights Education and Monitoring Centre, in recent years, a chain of religious conflicts has been created against the Muslim community characterized by a common social and cultural context. Some of the conflicts remain unresolved and Muslims are unable to exercise their rights properly. EMC calls on the Ministry of Internal Affairs to take appropriate steps to prevent violent practices, de-escalate conflicts, and ensure a timely and effective investigation of the incidents, also, to take all relevant measures to ensure that the Muslim community conducts religious services in a safe environment.

According to the mayor of Chokhatauri municipality Irakli Kuchava, for the past three weeks joint as well as separate meetings were held with Muslim and Christian communities. Such dialogue between the opposing sides was supposed to take place in the region on Tuesday, but the meeting was not held. According to Kuchava, the local government and the police will do their best to resolve the problem without any excesses. The mayor stated that negotiations with representatives of both communities would continue.

The Muslim Mufti of Kobuleti and Guria, Aslan Beridze arrived in the village yesterday and stated that local Muslims do not demand a fundamental building and added that a site for organizing chapel would be allotted after the agreement is reached between two parties. Beridze emphasised that prayers would not stop in the village.