On Thursday Moscow's town-planning commission declined a plan to build an Islamic humanitarian center and a mosque in the city's north-western district of Mitino, RIA Novosti news agency reports. The decision came after some 1,500 Mitino residents gathered to protest against the mosque.

"The decision to abandon building the mosque and the Islamic center was made because of objections by Mitino residents," Moscow's mayor's office said in an online statement.

On Wednesday evening some 1,500  Mitino residents took to the streets and held a rally under the slogan "Say 'no' to a mosque in Mitino." They said they were protesting because of fears that the newly built mosque would gather thousands of Muslims to the district during holidays 
 and that it would complicate the transport situation in the district.

The plan to build a mosque in Mitino was voiced in the beginning of September 2012 when the town-planning commission approved the application of the Islamic united center of Muslim organizations in Russia to get territory for a new Islamic center and a mosque.

There are now three mosques in Moscow. Muslim religious officials plan to have ten mosques in the city, with one in every district.