tatar "dating" in the world's tiniest mosque

(sort-of) hot on the heels of this...

World's smallest mosque built in Kazan [20032018]

The world's smallest mosque has been built in the memory of Tatars who were killed during the taking of Kazan by troops of Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible in 1552. According to Rosbalt, not more than 10 people can worship in the mosque at one time.

The mosque was built in the style of a miniature copy of the Kul Sharif mosque, which was constructed on the territory of the Kazan Kremlin [sic for krieml "citadel"]. The miniature octahedral mosque measures 25 square meters. It has one cupola and four 10-meter high minarets. The interior of the mosque covers only ten square meters. The initiator of the construction of the mosque was a 77-year-old WWII veteran. Various organizations and individuals donated money for the construction of the mosque.

[from prawda via muslim population, an apparently-abandoned website; all cites mine -ed.]

... comes this:

Kazan mosque helps to build Muslim families [18-02-2004]

The Kazan mosque Suleyman opened a dating service [sic] that helps to build Muslim families. The service works every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, it tell everybody willing about national traditions of family upbringing and traditions of Islam in the sphere.

It is noteworthy that this mosque also organizes fund collection for children and pensioner´s houses. It holds dinners for orphans and lonely senior citizens.

(excerpt from the islam in russia newsletter via muslim news (uk))

i think it's hysterical that they call it a "dating service" - it's actually a kind of rotary thing, it seems, or perhaps the equivalent of a "parish hoe-down" to galvanise and organise suriving local tatars.

incidentally, a perusal of .ru-extension websites will reveal that russians suck at english. i'm not saying they should be good, but hey - even the news services' "english" versions were apparently made with babelfish.altavista.