MOSCOW, October 22 (Itar-Tass) - Spiritual leaders of the Russian Moslem community have voiced utmost concern over the new attempts to foment inter-religious strife that have resulted in a surge of violence.
An appeal by Russian muftis to the nation that was published at the official website of the Religious Department of Moslems of the European Regions of Russia (DUMER) urges the country’s population not to succumb to provocative acts.
“We’re pleading to the Almighty that He give consolation to the hearts of the people afflicted (in the course of the violent actions),” Ilyas Biktimirov, the chairman of the Islamic religious council of Russia’s southern Volgograd region said. “On our part, we’ll give them whatever help and assistance we can give.”
He expressed sincere condolences for the families of the people, whose lives were carried away by the act of suicide bombing carried out on a regular bus in Volgograd Monday.
Along with it, Biktimirov expressed regret over the fact of an assault on a Moslem prayer house in the Kirov district of Volgograd, in the course of which bottles of Molotov cocktail had been thrown into the house.
“Islam is a pure source that should be treasured,” he said. “Some people are trying to draw out water from it with a dirty scoop, but the source as such is not to blame for the fact that people try to muddle it, and that is why the act of terror (the bus bombing) should not be linked to Islam.”
“Attempts are being made to impose an idea on the Moslem young people, and especially the ones in North Caucasus, that justice is possible only in a caliphate, while their peers in other regions of Russia are being told that expulsion of people descending from the south will return tranquility and security to their native cities and villages,” said Damir Mukhetdinov, DUMER’s First Deputy Chairman.
“Please don’t believe the provocateurs making a ploy of blood of the dead,” Mukhetdinov said. “People of middle age and senior age are deeply concerned over someone’s striving to pull us into ethnic and religious kens and to put up people one against another.”
“We must put our best efforts into fighting with terrorists and provocateurs in the name of a peaceful life of our near and dear ones,” Mukhetdinov said.