On May 31, 2019 Nino Lomjaria, Public Defender of Georgia and Ekaterine Skhiladze Deputy Public Defender met with the west Georgia Mufti Beglar Kamashidze and the head of the non-governmental organization “Georgian Muslims Union” Tariel Nakaidze.

Public Defender got interested with the challenges in the community and discussed the mandate and activities of the Public Defender in the field of protection of rights of religious minorities.

As discussed, construction of a mosque still remains the main challenge in Adjara. The mosque in Batumi cannot accommodate prayers for many years already and many of them have to pray on the street in the vicinity of the mosque. Public Defender examined the territory purchased by the Muslim community for the construction of a new mosque; currently only a small wooden construction is standing here and the case on the issuance of a construction permit of the mosque is still pending at court.

Muslim community is also concerned with the educational issue. Representatives of the community demand the development of special programmes by the Ministry of Education, in order to enable Muslim youth to gain religious education in Georgia and to ensure that they do not have to go abroad to that end.