Religious scandal in Crimea

Events / Incidents - 03 February 2012, Friday 12:56

ESKI QIRIM/ STARYI KRYM (QHA) - Another religious scandal has burst out in Crimea after an Orthodox priest sprinkled holy water on sleeping Crimean Tatar children.
The incident happened in the kindergarten No 8 (Eski Qırım/ Staryi Krym), the Crimean Tatar newspaper Avdet has reported.
According to the educator of the kindergarten Emiliya Mamut, an Orthodox priest in a cassock came to the kindergarten during the quiet hours on January 19 to conduct the rite of consecration. He sprinkles the room and sleeping children with holy water in the presence of the kindergarten’s head Natalia Zaytseva and a teacher Halina Plaksina.
As reported, 17 out of 28 children in the group are Crimean Tatars.
The teacher said she hindered implementation of the rite, but she was stopped and pushed into the bathroom. As a result, the room and children were consecrated, ignoring the principles of religious freedom. E. Mamut believes that the parents of several children would have expressed their outrage after learning about the incident. However, this did not happen, because the next day the head of the kindergarten in a rude manner demanded the teacher to write a letter of resignation.
The offer to resign just because of an attempt to protect children’s rights can be regarded as an attempted unlawful dismissal, which relates to criminal offenses (Article 172 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
Emiliya Mamut considers the above-mentioned actions illegal and violating the constitutional rights to religious freedom of citizens and their children. She sent letters to the mayor, prosecutor of the İslâm Terek/ Kirove raion, the Religious Administration of Muslims of Crimea and other institutions, but has received no response yet.

 
QHA