« Indonesia: Bali Bomb Islamists On Death Row Will Appeal |
| Bangladesh: Islamist Suicide Bombers' Threats Taken Seriously »
December 2, 2005
Russia: Uproar Over "Islamist" Claims in Book on Russian Muslims
The Russian news agency Interfax today announced that the Russian Inter-Religious Council will convene shortly to discuss the release of a controversial book.
The book, entitled "A Recent History of the Russian Islamic Community", has been written by Roman Silantyev, executive secretary of the Inter-Religious Council.
On Thursday, the head of Russia's Council of Muftis said that his group might withdraw from the Inter-Religious Council in protest at the book's release. He said that the book is "a strong destabilization factor."
Today, Friday, the Moscow Patriarchate's Foreign Church Relations Department issued a statement, which claimed the book was not in keeping with the views on Islam maintained by the Russian Orthodox Church. The statement read: "The author wrote this book as an independent expert, without agreeing his position with the Moscow Patriarchate's Foreign Church Relations Department or any other church body"
The statement said that "Peaceful and mutually respectful relations have been established between religions in our country. No one has the right to encroach on the centuries-old traditions of inter-religious cooperation."
Rival Gainutdin (pictured), the head of the Council of Muftis, has said the book has been based on mere rumours.
The controversial claim within the book, as reported by Islam OnLine is a statement by Silanteyev that claimed there were between 500,000 and 1,000,000 Islamic militants in Russia.
Gainutdin said ""the publication was an attempt to blacken the clergy and leaders of nearly all religious centers of traditional Russian Islam."
In September we mentioned the Council of Mufti's attempts to have a vice-presidential post in the government which represented Muslims.
The Russian Mufti is Muhammedgali Khuzin who recently commented on the French riots, in which he blamed European political leaders for hoping to reach an agreement with extremists and ensure relative tranquility in their countries, noting that Britain gave asylum to terrorists.
Islam Online states that there is a Muslim population of 20 million in the Russian Federation, mostly concentrated in the federal states of the north Caucasus.
Recently, racist attacks have increased against people seen as Muslims, more so following the attacks on the school at Beslan in North Ossettia September 2004, in which 320 schoolchildren and adults were killed.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at December 2, 2005 10:40 PM
Comments
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)