The Finnish-Islamic Congregation (, ) is an

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

ic congregation which members are local

Tatars Tatars ( )Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary are a group of Turkic peoples across Eas ...

. It was founded in 1925 and was the first Islamic congregation in Finland. The congregation has activity in

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

Järvenpää Järvenpää (; , ; ) is a town in Finland, located in the southern interior of the country. Järvenpää is situated in the centre of the Uusimaa region in the immediate vicinity of Lake Tuusula. The population of Järvenpää is approximately ...

Kotka Kotka (; ) is a town in Finland, located on the southeastern coast of the country at the mouth of the Kymi River. The population of Kotka is approximately , while the Kotka-Hamina sub-region, sub-region has a population of approximately . It is th ...

and

Turku Turku ( ; ; , ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Southwest Finland. It is located on the southwestern coast of the country at the mouth of the Aura River (Finland), River Aura. The population of Turku is approximately , while t ...

History

The first Muslim people in Finland were

Tatars Tatars ( )Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary are a group of Turkic peoples across Eas ...

. They arrived between the late 1800s and early 1900s as

merchant A merchant is a person who trades in goods produced by other people, especially one who trades with foreign countries. Merchants have been known for as long as humans have engaged in trade and commerce. Merchants and merchant networks operated i ...

s from the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

. They were mainly

Mishar Tatars The Mishar Tatars (endonyms: мишәрләр, мишәр татарлары, ''mişärlär, mişär tatarları''), previously known as the Meshcheryaki (мещеряки), are the second largest subgroup of the Volga Tatars, after the Kazan Tat ...

, but some other

Turkic peoples Turkic peoples are a collection of diverse ethnic groups of West Asia, West, Central Asia, Central, East Asia, East, and North Asia as well as parts of Europe, who speak Turkic languages.. "Turkic peoples, any of various peoples whose members ...

came as well, such as

Bashkirs The Bashkirs ( , ) or Bashkorts (, ; , ) are a Turkic peoples, Turkic ethnic group indigenous to Russia. They are concentrated in Bashkortostan, a Republics of Russia, republic of the Russian Federation and in the broader historical region of B ...

and

Kazakhs The Kazakhs (Kazakh language, Kazakh: , , , ) are a Turkic peoples, Turkic ethnic group native to Central Asia and Eastern Europe. They share a common Culture of Kazakhstan, culture, Kazakh language, language and History of Kazakhstan, history ...

. They blended in quickly because the first generation tended to identify themselves mostly through their religion (''möselman''). After settling in the country, they shortly felt the need to organize officially. The predecessor to the congregation was created in 1915, and its name was ''Helsingin musulmaanien hyväntekeväisyysseura'' (The Charity Club of Helsinki Moslems). They often held their services at the house of Weli-Ahmed Hakim, who would also become a founding member and long-time imam of the congregation. Due to laws at the time, these Muslim merchants could not establish an actual congregation in the beginning, but after the freedom of religion law was passed in 1922, it was possible. The congregation was officially registered in 1925. The name of the congregation was at first ''Suomen muhamettilainen seurakunta'' (The Finnish Mohammedan Congregation). It was changed in 1963 to its current version. The first administration consisted of following people; Weli Ahmed Hakim,

Ymär Abdrahim Ymär Abdrahim (né ''Abdrahimoff -'' ; Mishar Dialect: "Ümär", Literary Tatar: Гомәр Габдрәхимов, ''Ğomär Ğabdräximov''; 24 March 1882 - 26 March 1975) was a Tatar entrepreneur, who had his own successful haberdashery/fabri ...

, Nur-Muhammed Ali, Ismael Arifulla and Imad Samaletdin. Imam-Hakim also became the first chairman of the congregation. He has later been named an honorary member. During those times, the congregation was not yet officially only for Tatars, but back then, there were almost no other Muslims in the country.

Facilities

At first, In 1941, the congregation acquired a house from the Helsinki street

Fredrikinkatu Fredrikinkatu (, Helsinki slang: ''Freda'') is a street in Helsinki, Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the e ...

. In 1948, it bought a wooden house located on the same street. In its place the current building was built between 1958 and 1961, designed by a Finnish man, Armas Lahtinen. The cost was 170 million Finnish Marks, and it was funded with loans and donations. The congregation received five million marks from Pakistan and Turkey, and 600,000 marks from Morocco. The congregation owns the entire building, though only a couple of floors are in use and the rest is rented. The Finnish Islamic Congregation is fairly wealthy and therefore does not require taxes from its members.Leitzinger 2006, p. 174 In addition to the main building in Helsinki, the congregation owns the

Järvenpää Mosque Järvenpää Mosque () is a mosque located in the Finnish town of Järvenpää. It is owned by The Finnish-Islamic Congregation, which members are Finnish Tatars. It was built in the 1940s. The Tatar community together raised the money for it. ...

and also chapels in

and

. The Tatars in

Tampere Tampere is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Pirkanmaa. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Tampere is approximately , while the metropolitan area has a population of approximately . It is the most populous mu ...

have their own congregation. The Finnish-Islamic Congregation has cemeteries in

Hietaniemi The Hietaniemi cemetery (, ) is located mainly in the Lapinlahti, Helsinki, Lapinlahti quarter and partly in the Etu-Töölö district of Helsinki, the Capital (political), capital of Finland. It is the location for Finnish state funeral service ...

(Helsinki) and Turku. Before losing the area, Viipuri (now Vyborg) also had a space for the deceased Muslims.

Orientation

The Finnish Tatars are

Sunni Muslims Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr () rightfully succeeded him as the caliph of the Musli ...

. It has been said, that they practice so called "liberal Islam", but at least one of the leaders of the congregation, Atik Ali does not accept given description. He says that there is only one Islam, and they also practice it - but many indeed have become secularized, while some are still more devout. The congregation is heavily tied to the Tatar ethnic identity; it does not try to convert others and only accepts Tatars and their spouses (after a three-year trial) as its members. Other Muslims can however come and pray during services. Many descendants of the Finnish Tatars are now Christian due to mixed marriages. Older members of the community have been against mixing with others. International guests visiting the congregation have been for example presidents

Rustam Minnikhanov Rustam Nurgaliyevich Minnikhanov (born 1 March 1957) is a Russian politician who has served as the head of Tatarstan, a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia, since 2010. Early life and education Rustam Minnikhanov was born on 1 ...

(Tatarstan) and

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician who is the 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as the 25th prime minister of Turkey, prime minister from 2003 to 2014 as part of the Jus ...

(Turkey).

Chairmen

* Weli-Ahmed Hakim (1926–1926) * Kemal Baibulat (1926–1928) * Ismail Arifulla (1928–1929) * Zuhur Tahir (1929–1961) * Osman Ali (1961–1982) * Abdullah Ali (1982–1988) * Okan Daher (1988–2012) * Atik Ali (2012–2020) * Gölten Bedretdin (2020–present)

References

External links

*
Documentary on the congregation

Imam Ramil Bilal (Belyaev)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Finnish-Islamic Congregation, The Finnish Tatars Islamic organisations based in Finland 1925 establishments in Finland Islamic organizations established in 1925