And this is what the face check looks like when you enter a mosque — similar to fashionable clubs, but reinforced by the police. From the perspective of Muslims, this innovation has caused a storm of emotion and mocking humor.
From a theological point of view, there is nothing to discuss here — the absence of a white shirt on a person cannot be a reason for his exclusion from Friday prayers or from the mosque. From a purely aesthetic point of view, one could discuss the taste of the administration in wanting to ensure this kind of appearance for its congregation. However, we are not talking about a cultural center or a private or public event for which such dress codes might theoretically be appropriate.
We are talking about the House of Allah, which should be open to all believers, and the «dress code» for entering it is determined solely by the Sharia, for example, covering one’s aurat, or the absence of indecent elements on one’s clothing, etc. And when the administration starts demanding that the congregation wear clothes of a certain color, which is similar to demanding that they wear clothes of a certain brand or other taste preferences, one wonders if one should put on a straitjacket.
However, joking about this would be appropriate if Muslims in Russia lived in a country where they could «vote with their feet» in such cases — if they didn’t like a mosque, they could calmly open another one, as happens in Western countries. Unfortunately, the Russian reality in this regard is becoming more and more like that of China — where even mosques are built strictly under the supervision of the state, which controls the content of the sermons in them and is already beginning to determine what clothes and what color they can be worn inside them.