Window on Eurasia

Many of Russia's Muslims Back Moscow on Hezbollah and HAMAS

 

Paul Goble

Vienna, August 2, 2006 – Muslims in the Russian Federation generally `back Moscow’s decision not to include Hezbollah and HAMAS on a list of
terrorist organizations, some because they support the programs of
these two groups but most because of deference to the government, according
to an informal survey conducted by a Muslim news agency.

Muslim-Press.ru entitled its report on this survey “If the FSB did
not include Hezbollah and HAMAS in the list of terrorist organization, that
means, this [decision] was necessary,” adding that this was the view
of “almost all” Muslims in the Russian Federation it had questioned
[http://muslim-press.ru/], July 31.

The news agency then carried the answers that four of the Muslims it
had spoken with gave, and they are provided below, less as an authoritative
description of Muslim opinion in the Russian Federation than as an
indication of the calculations that these Muslims at least are making
in expressing an opinion on this issue.

Mukhamedgali-Khazrat Khuzin, the head of the Muslim Spiritual
Directorate (MSD) of Perm, former number two in the Central MSD, and
someone long known to have extremely close ties with the Moscow
Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church, was the most laconic.

Khuzin said that “if the FSB considers things this way, then that
means that this is the policy of the government. And we, the faithful,
support it completely.”

Nafigulla-khazrat Ashirov, the head of the MSD for the Asiatic Part of
Russia and a frequent critic of Jews and Israel, said that the FSB
decision reflected the fact that Moscow is now pursuring “its own
independent policy” in the Middle East and is prepared to say to the
rest of the world: “Be good enough to respect it!”

As for the arguments of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia
(FEOR) that these two groups should be included on any terrorist
“black list,” Ashirov said: “Comrades from FEOR! Do your
religious work and do not engage in politics! Leave politics to the
professionals.”

Geidar Dzhemal, head of the Islamic Committee of Russia and someone
with close ties to Russian nationalist and communist groups, responded to
Muslim-press.ru’s questions with the following words: “We have our
own policy and there is nothing more to say.”

As for the objections of FEOR, Dzhemal continued, they can safely be
ignored. “At one time, the UN equated Zionism and racism. And then,
after the distintegration of the USSR, the collapse of the countries of
socialism, and the weakening of the positions of a number of country,
the liberal view that these are not the same triumphed.”

But that can’t last, Dzhemal continued. “Israel was created as a
state with an apartheid system. So that the basic content of racism and
Zionism is one and the same thing. Israel,” he concluded, “is a
generator or ideas of chauvinism and racism,” whatever its defenders
say.

Finally, the Muslim press service queried Minakhmat Ibragimov,
identified only as a parishioner of Moscow’s Cathedral Mosque. In his
view, Ibragimov said, these two groups “are not terrorists: they have
not done anything against Russia. As as far as the Near East is
concerned, just look what terror the Israeli Defense Forces are
spreading.

“An army which in a foreign country grinds under the treads of tanks
peaceful homes, children and women cannot be called a Defense Force!”
Ibragimov insisted.

Many Russians appear to share his view: A poll conducted by the
All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM) on a
slightly different issue found that only 14 percent of Russians blame
Hezbollah for the current conflict in the Middle East, and only 13
percent say HAMAS is responsible
[http://www.wciom.ru/], August 1.

Twenty-three percent blame the Israeli government, and another 21
percent say that the United States and other allies of Israel are
responsible. But it is worth noting that the largest percentage – 28
percent – say that terrorist organizations, the Israeli government,
Lebanon and other “interested” countries are equally to blame.

 

Latest Window on Eurasia stories | Religion Archive | Islam in Russia and CIS Archive | Orthodox Church in Russia and CIS Archive | All Window on Eurasia Stories Archive |