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August 13, 2006
Top Russian Muslim Leader Threatens State: Support My Islam or the Wahhabis Will Come
A top Muslim leader criticized President Vladimir Putin's government on Friday, calling it to financially support his Muslim groups, or face the threat of Saudi-sponsored Wahhabism.
During an August 11 meeting of the Council for Confessional Policy and Historical and Spiritual Preservation in Bashkortostan in Russia's Volga region, Talgat Tatjuddin, the Supreme Mufti of the Central Moslem Board in Russia, said that devout Muslims of the totalitarian Wahhabi sect promoted and financed by Saudi Arabia are seeking control of Russia's Muslim community.
The mufti, known for his extravagant and garish dress, also made a carefully veiled threat that the only option was for the Russian government to support those Muslim groups that he approved of. (And all this from the man who in March 2003 called for jihad against the United States.)
``Russian President Vladimir Putin has promised that the state will substantially support religious organizations facing serious problems, such as high bills for water and electricity. Many of them are struggling to survive, and good wishes are not enough --- they need financial support. Otherwise, people trained in Wahhabi centers abroad will continue actively forcing out Russian Islamic leaders. They seek religious offices in Russia, but we all know who they are and what they have been trained for,'' Tatjuddin said, reports Regnum, a Russian news agency. (NOTE: this is my own translation from the Russian, and differs slightly from the one on the news agency's web site.)
What right does Putin have offering, and the mufti requesting state support for Islam? According to the Russian constitution, there is a separation of religion and state. Obviously, mufti Tatjuddin doesn't care much for observing law. He is a Muslim, and therefore Islam is the state, and the state is Islam; or at least that is his desired goal for Russia.
Posted by Jean de la Valette at August 13, 2006 5:49 AM
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