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August 25, 2007

Russia: Orthodox Church Tells Firebrand Muslim Cleric to Shut-up

Over the past six months it seems that with every few weeks tensions between leading Muslim and Russian Orthodox personalities continue to rise.

The latest event was last week when Father Andrei Kurayev, a professor at the Moscow Theological Academy and a popular writer and speaker, made the unusual public call upon Islamic leaders to rein in mufti Nafigullah Ashirov, co-chairman of Russia's Council of Muftis.

``Individuals of his sort like to threaten war and conflict,'' said Fr Andrei, speaking to Interfax news agency. ``They use threats and blackmail to make other people do what they want, or they will blow up the country. I would be happy if the Russian Muslim community could find a good reason to send Ashirov on a really long mission to some very secular state on the Arabian Peninsula in order that he might pursue his ideals over there.''

Kurayev was reacting to a letter signed earlier this month by a group of muftis, including Ashirov, which accused the Russian Orthodox Church of ``clericalizing'' Russian society. Since the collapse of communism, the Orthodox Church has gained greater influence in Russian society. One of its most controversial plans has been the proposal for pupils to study religion as a social sciences course.

The Russian constitution calls for separation of church and state, however. While the criticism about the overly close relation between the Orthodox Church and the Russian state is well-grounded, oddly enough there has been no criticism of Islam for its excessive influence in the public life of certain Russian republics and cities. During a tour of Chechnya last year, Western Resistance noted that Chechen children attending public schools were forced to follow and study Islamic traditions.

Yet, those same Russian `human' rights groups in Moscow, some funded by western foundations, that often criticize the Orthodox Church, never make any criticism of Islamic clericalism.

The Russian Orthodox Church has a deeper historical beef with Islam. First, the country was subjugated to Tatar overlords starting in the mid 13th century until the late 15th century. The Tatars converted to Islam in the early 14th century; hence, Russia moaned under Islamic rule for almost 200 years. The price was paid in constant raids, kidnapping of women and children, and paying tribute.

Second, the Russian Orthodox Church still mourns the destruction of the great Orthodox empire, the Byzantine Empire, by invading Islamic Turkish armies. Russia had been converted by Byzantine missionaries from Constantinople over a 1,000 years ago, and always saw that empire as the font of its civlization. As late as the end of the 18th century the Russian czars and czarinas had hopes of liberating Constantinople.

Father Andrei said that the muftis are ``very dishonest'' for their blaming the Russian Empire for supporting Christian missions among the Tatars, Russia's second largest nationality, most of whom are culturally `Muslim', though most tend to be non-religious. A large minority indeed are Christian.

``It looks as freedom of conscience was for them [Muslims] a right to own the minds of people they consider theirs,'' said Kurayev. ``They simply declare 20 million Russians to belong to their faith only because they belong to particular ethnic groups, though in fact the Tatars are a normal European nation and as such are very diverse.''

Interesting enough, Mufti Ashirov supports the Russian Islamic project --- a missionary project whose goal is to convert ethnic Russians to the Islamic cult.

Past tours of Russian `Muslim' republics carried out by Western Resistance have shown that most residents of these `traditional' Muslims lands do not care much for the Islamic cult. If given the freedom to choose most have little interest and desire to heed the teachings of a deranged and psychopathic 7th century Arabian warlord.

Instead of abolishing Islam once and for all, unfortunately, the regional governments of these `Muslim' republics are promoting its own state-controlled version of Islam, thinking that it can preempt the more `radical' strains that were imported from Saudi Arabia in the 1990s.

Any effort to bolster Islam in any form, however, will backfire. Many well-intentioned and otherwise good people who are searching for God will be misled toward a violent and hateful cult.

Posted by Jean de la Valette at August 25, 2007 1:29 PM

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