Sinica asks prosecutor to reclaim Kaunas mosque for Lithuanian Tatars

Parliamentarian Vytautas Sinica has asked Lithuania’s Prosecutor General’s Office to defend the public interest and return the Kaunas mosque, a Muslim house of worship, to the Lithuanian Tatar community, LRT reported.

Sinica said the mosque was built with state funds during the interwar period and given to Lithuanian Tatars, rather than to citizens of other countries who currently use it.

In his appeal, Sinica said Lithuanian Tatars had taken part extensively in the country’s 1918 to 1920 wars of independence. He said the state built and donated the mosque to the community in recognition of its longstanding coexistence with Lithuanians and its contribution to the struggle for independence.

According to Sinica, Muslims who arrived from various Asian countries took control of the mosque from Lithuanian Tatars in 2019. He said citizens of Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan now pray there, while Lithuanian Tatars are allegedly not allowed to enter.

Sinica is urging prosecutors to ask a court to transfer the mosque into state ownership and then take steps to return it to the Lithuanian Tatar community.

Lithuania currently has four mosques: in Kaunas, the villages of Nemėžis and Keturiasdešimt Totorių in Vilnius District, and the village of Raižiai in Alytus District.