AUFA -- Pachkiria is one of the republics of former Soviet Union, with an area of 143,000 square kilometers, and its capital is Aufa.

It has a population of four million, with Russians accounting for 39 percent of the population, Tatar 28 percent, and 22 percent are the indigenous Pachkirians.

First contact between Muslims and Pachkirians was during the era of the Abbasid Caliph, Al-Muqtadi Billah, who sent his envoy, Ahmed bin Fadhlan to this country, whose people were either heathens or nature worshipers. But after the visit of the envoy the people wholeheartedly embraced Islam, and in the 14th century of the Gregorian calendar the majority of its inhabitants were Muslims.

This was during the era of Uzbek Khan, but later Czarist Russian took it in 1553.

After the Russians had taken it, the indigenous Pachkirians were subjected to all sorts of inequities, including the misappropriation of their lands and giving it to the Russians, and during the Soviet era things became even worse for them, to the extent that they even denied basic freedoms.

However, with the coming to an end of the USSR, things began to change and doors for the study and practice of religion were opened by the Pachkirians, to the extent that a number of new mosques have been built, while many of the ancient ones have been repaired and renovated.

Apart from being places of worship, the mosques have also become places where Islamic studies are taught and practiced.

The directorate of religious affairs is involved in the issuance of religious rulings, and the mufti is a graduate of one of the religious institutes of Bukhara.

However, the need for Daawa activists and teachers for spreading Islamic culture and translation of Islamic books into the local language is still there.

(IRNA)