The mosque will be built at 128 Balkovskaya street, where the prayer house used to be located. According to the Imam of Odessa Sheikh Ilyas Umarov, the new church will accommodate more than a thousand believers and will be one of the three largest mosques in Ukraine.
The architecture of the building will combine Eastern and Western styles. Еспресо.TV.
"The Muslim community hopes that the Cathedral Mosque will become not only a spiritual, but also an architectural monument and a center of attraction for 1.5 million believers in Ukraine. Muslims say that Odessa has always been a multinational city, and supporters of Islam are an integral part of the Ukrainian people, ready to work for Ukraine to take pride of place in the international arena," the Odessa Agency Ukrainian Information Service quotes details.
The ceremony was attended by the Supreme Mufti of Ukraine, head of the spiritual administration of Muslims of Ukraine Sheikh Ahmed Tamim, representatives of the authorities and Muslim countries - Indonesian Ambassador Yuddi Hrisnandi, Iraqi ambassador Bakir Ahmed Aziz Al-JAF and Iranian ambassador Manouchehr Moranda.
Representatives of Christian churches also visited the Muslim holiday. According to the priest of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Father Igor, Muslims and Christians are children of the same father Abraham.
"Christians and Muslims can be together and treat each other very well. This is a great gift - a gift of peace that we never break, but always preserve, because peace is the greatest gift that the Lord has given us," he said.