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March 16, 2006
Russian Soldiers Accused of koran `Desecration'
Russian soldiers fighting a Muslim insurrection in the country's southern republic of Dagestan have been accused of `desecrating' the Muslim book, the koran, reported Russia's radio Ekho Moskvi. The situation, however, is so bizarre and sketchy that a more rational conclusion is that the incident never took place, but has been fabricated as an example to inspire Muslims to further murder and violence. Of course, even if it had taken place, the soldiers have every moral, not to mention legal, right to destroy literature that calls for violence and hatred. Russian law forbids any call to intolerance toward any ethnic or religious group; hence, the koran should be outlawed since it calls for violence against those who do not follow the ideology it promotes.
The accusations were based on the testimony of Marko Shakhbanov, a journalist from a Muslim Dagestani newspaper, Chernovik, who was interviewed by the radio station. He said he heard about the alleged incident from relatives of Dagestanis who allegedly had been questioned by Russian soldiers, and who allegedly were threatened by those soldiers.
According to Shakhbanov, ``when the threats didn't work, they took the Koran from the shelves and methodically began to rip out pages, and then took scissors and cut the pages.''
Russian Muslim leaders have jumped at the PR opportunity afforded by these accusations, and have responded with carefully veiled threats that make it clear Russian Muslims are planning to spread jihad throughout the country, which has a Muslim population of about 16 million, or 14 percent of the population.
``The blasphemous actions of these soldiers is due to growing Islamophobia in Russian society,'' said mufti Ismagil Khazrat Shangareyev, head of the Islamic Legal Center. `` Islamophobia is a terrible threat that acts like a time bomb,'' and if not stopped, ``the situation might become uncontrollable and we could end up like Yugoslavia.''
Posted by at March 16, 2006 1:21 PM
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