Europe's Largest Mosque in Grozny

The Mosque will be able to accommodate over 10,000 worshipers and has minarets that soar 180 feet into the air.

GROZNY- Chechnya's once war-shattered capital Grozny is set to be the largest not only in the Muslim-majority country but Europe as well.

"Ceremony of opening is planned for October 17," President Ramzan Kadyrov told the Russian news agency Interfax on Wednesday, September 10.

The inauguration will mark the first day of the International Peacemakers' Conference, titled "Islam-Religion of Peace and Progress," Kadyrov added.

The Mosque will be able to accommodate over 10,000 worshipers and has minarets that soar 180 feet into the air.

It will be surrounding be Chechnya's Islamic administration, a religious school, an Islamic university, a hotel and a religious library.

The mosque is tipped as the biggest not only in the mountainous republic in the North Caucasus region but in Europe as well.

The construction began more than three years ago at an estimated cost of some $20 million.

The Mosque is named after the incumbent president's father Ahmad Kadyrov, who was killed in 2004.

Long Awaited

President Kadyrov noted that the first grand mosque came after a long wait.

"People of the Chechen Republic first time in sixty years will have a possibility to have a grand mosque in Grozny and conduct Islamic religious rites there."

He noted that under the soviet regime, there was not a single main mosque in Chechnya.

"All the mosques were closed, destroyed and robbed in the Chechen Republic more than 60 years ago," Kadyrov recalled.

"Up to now residents of the republican capital didn't have an opportunity to pray in one, main mosque, though it is usual for all Islamic states and regions where Islam is praticed."

The mosque's foundation rests on the grounds of the former headquarters of the Communist Party's regional commitee.

It is situated beside the ruins of another, much smaller mosque that was being constructed by Chechen fighters in the 1990's.

Chechnya has been ravage by conflict since 1994, with just three years of relative peace after the first war between Russian forces and Chechen fighters ended in August 1996 and the second broke out in October 1999.

At least 100,000 civilians-about 10 percent of the population- are estimate to have been killed in both wars.

Human rights groups, however, say the real numbers are much higher.

AllahuAkhbar! AllahuAkhbar! AllahuAkhbar!