MOSCOW, Russia: Russian Muslims and rights activists rallied Monday outside Russian government headquarters to protest the threatened destruction of a mosque being built in the southern city of Astrakhan.

The partially constructed mosque is next to the main road leading from the airport into Astrakhan, and protest organizers said authorities appeared to be annoyed that it would occupy such a prominent location, at a gateway to the city.

Russia's 20 million Muslims make up some 14 percent of the nation's population, but about half the 1.1 million inhabitants of Astrakhan province, which is home to the Volga Tatars, are Muslim.

Plans to construct the mosque were originally laid in 1998. The city administration granted a permit three years later.

But licensing officials did an about-face after a new regional governor and mayor took office in late 2004. A local court has ordered the Muslims to dismantle the structure at their own expense by May 1 or face the bulldozers.

"We can't even get local newspapers to print our views so we have been obliged to come here to Moscow," said the mosque's administrator Asya Makhmutova. "We believe we will be listened to and the federal government will help us, that is our hope."