Russian Muslims Angered by Bombing
Janus
Russian Muslims Angered by Bombing
The Associated Press, Mon 5 Nov 2001
MOSCOW (AP) — A leader of Russia's large Muslim community lashed out
Monday at the U.S. air campaign against Afghanistan and warned that
Moscow's support for the bombardment could cause divisions in Russia.
``It's a criminal war. I think Americans will suffer a failure there,
as in Vietnam. It's futile to wage war against Allah,'' said Nafigulla
Ashir, a co-chairman of the Russian Mufti Council, which groups
Islamic clerics from across Russia.
U.S. and Russian officials have repeatedly insisted that the campaign
is aimed at terrorists, not Muslims.
In an emotional speech, Ashir said it would be justified for any of
Russia's 20 million Muslims to take up arms and help the Taliban
militia, which the United States has targeted for sheltering terrorist
suspect Osama bin Laden.
Ashir said some Russian Muslims may have joined up already. ``What
should a Muslim feel after seeing the footage of men weeping over
bodies of women and children ripped apart in the bombings?'' he asked.
The mufti said Russia's support for the U.S.-led effort to stamp out
terrorism is producing a rift within this country.
President Vladimir Putin's backing of U.S.-led coalition against
terrorism has won it closer political and economic relations with the
West. But some have warned Putin's stance could inflame predominantly
Muslim regions in Russia, already tense from the 2-year-old war
between federal troops and Islamic rebels in the breakaway republic of
Chechnya.
``The events that are happening will predetermine Russia's future as
either the future of a unified country or the future that befell
Yugoslavia and the USSR,'' Ashir said.
Muslims constitute 13 percent of the country's population, many of
them concentrated in republics near Kazakstan.
Ashir said Russia's involvement is against its national interests
because it has ceded its influence in the former Soviet republics of
Central Asia, such as Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, to the United States.
``They (Americans) will never leave these areas, just like they did in
Kosovo and in the Persian Gulf,'' he said.
Russia's chief mufti, Talgat Tadzhuddin, on Monday blasted U.S. plans
to continue bombings throughout the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
``By failing to respect religious sentiments of others Americans are
provoking a new series of terror attacks against themselves,'' he told
the Interfax news agency.
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