On Dehtiarivska Street in Kyiv stands a mosque, one of two in the mainly Christian capital. Going inside, the first person I met was five-year old Miriam. Standing near the entrance, shifting from one foot to another in her pink hijab, she shyly asked me to help her undo her shoelaces. Just like the rest of the visitors of the mosque, she had to take off her shoes before going into the praying hall. Many pairs of shoes are stacked in special shelves in a tiny room next to the entrance.
Some 1,500 people come to the Podil mosque every Friday to pray. The second-floor hall is meant for women only. While the service in Arab and Russian is on in the first floor, the women watch it live on a large plasma TV.
In largely Christian Orthodox Ukraine, the Islamic faith has been in the shadows, even though some 600,000 Muslims live in Ukraine. But lately Muslims have become more visible in Ukraine, especially since Russia’s annexation of Crimea and renewed focus on Crimean Tatars, believers in Islam.
Kyiv’s Muslim community is estimated at 40,000 people. Two mosques – one in Podil, another near Lukianivska metro station – serve their religious needs.
According to Kyiv-based Islam expert Mykhailo Yakubovych, the concept of “Ukrainian Islam” has arisen, complete with the recent release of the first-ever Ukrainian translation of Quran.
Some Muslims choose not to fully integrate into all aspects of the community.
According to the director of a private high school Our Future for Muslim, located in the Podil mosque, some Muslim children find it hard to adapt in regular schools. “In ordinary schools, kids laugh at Muslim children because of strange names, or nationality, or because of the girls’ headscarves,” says Vira Fryndak, the director of the school.
Born in a Greek Catholic family in western Ukraine, Fryndak got fascinated with Islam and eventually converted. Another convert, Ukrainian Oleg Guzik, says his family understood his decision. “What attracted me to Islam the most is responsibility,” he says, including a no-alcohol rule.
For Guzik and other visitors, the mosque serves as a cultural center that includes, besides the school, a fitness center, a beauty salon for women, a TV studio and an office that issues halal food certificates to producers and café owners. The halal certifying center is busier since Russia’s war against Ukraine. Th conflict closed the Russian market to Ukrainian producers of halal food. They are looking for new markets.
Correction: A previous version of this story mistakenly said the described mosque is located in Podil. The mosque is actually on Dehtiarivska Street in Kyiv. Kyiv Post apologizes to the readers for the mistake.
