RUSSIA RELIGION NEWS


Diverse confessions unite against damage to mosque

RELIGIOUS LEADERS CONDEMN ACT OF VANDALISM AT MOSQUE ON POKLONNAYA HILL IN MOSCOW

Blagovest-Info, 13 January 2015

 

The incident of desecration of the Memorial Mosque on Poklonnaya Hill in Moscow was condemned at the Council of Muftis of Russia [Sovet Muftiev Rossii—SMR] and the Ecclesiastical Board of Muslims [Dukhovnoe Upravlenie Musulman—DUM] of the Russian federation, an official statement of the SMR that was distributed on Tuesday says. This is reported by TASS.

 

"We express condemnation of any provocations aimed at destabilizing society," the document says. "Citizens of our Russia, going through various trials in a history that is the same for all our peoples, will not give in to such provocations," the document says. The SMR assured that it intends "to unitedly protect our national and religious treasures."

 

In the night of 11-12 January, obscene images were painted on the façade of the mosque. A tape of what happened from a surveillance camera exists. Materials have been turned over to law enforcement agencies, the vice-chairman of SMR, Rushan Abbiasov, told TASS. "According to our information, the person committing this sin is mentally ill," the SMR statement notes.

 

In the opinion of the head of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia, Alexander Boroda, "Law enforcement agencies should display heightened attention to such acts of vandalism and the perpetrators should be found as fast as possible and convicted." "Against the background of incidents happening in the world and inter-religious and inter-ethnic conflicts, it is absolutely necessary for Russia to remain an example of friendly relations of representatives of the most diverse peoples and religions with one another," he thinks. Boroda called for "uniting and preserving peace for the future prosperity of citizens of Russia."

 

The chairman of the Information Department of the Russian Orthodox Church, Vladimir Legoida, also condemned the desecration of the Moscow mosque. He noted that the Memorial Mosque "not only is a place of prayer of the umma, but also a monument to those Muslim troops who perished on the fields of the Great Patriotic War, defending not only their own fellow believers but also Orthodox, Jews, and Buddhists, believers and nonbelievers." At the same time, Legoida does not think that "some group of conspirators against the inter-religious peace in Russia or any malicious haters of Islam" are behind this act of vandalism. (tr. by PDS, posted 13 January 2014)

IN LIGHT OF DESECRATION OF MOSQUE IN MOSCOW CHURCH URGES NOT TO TOLERATE PROVOCATIONS ON RELIGIOUS GROUNDS

Interfax-Religiia, 13 January 2014

 

The Russian church expressed unease in connection with the desecration of the Memorial Mosque on Poklonnaya Hill in Moscow.

 

"Obviously this was done by people whose conduct is incompatible both with Islam and with Christianity or else they would not have used in the action of provocation and vandalism an incompetently drawn cross and then depict next to it an obscene image," Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, the head of the synod's Department for Relations of Church and Society, told Interfax-Religiia. He suggested that somebody—perhaps very young people—"was carried away by the hysteria surrounding Islam and religious symbols that has now begun in the world."

 

"Campaigns aimed against religious symbols arouse the most unhealthy and most insane people. I would very much not wish to see the world agenda set, on one hand, by terrorists hiding behind Islam, and on the other hand, by antireligious provocateurs and blasphemers," the news agency's interlocutor declared. He said such an "agenda" may "very quickly lead to a war of all against all."

 

"It is possible that this was achieved by someone who stimulated, on one hand, pseudo-Muslim radicals, and on the other hand, provocateurs who desecrate religious symbols. I sincerely regret that the cross of Christ was used in such a monstrous way. This is simultaneously the desecration not only of a mosque but also of the cross," the church's representative noted.

 

He expressed the hope that "we will find out who did this and work together so that attempts to disrupt inter-religious and inter-ethnic peace from whatever quarter will be completely eliminated from our life."

 

Earlier the vice-chairman of the All-Russian International Union of Youth, Azamat Mintsaev, posted on his page in a social network photographs with drawings that had been made by unidentified persons with black paint on the walls of the Memorial Mosque. Among the images were a cross and a male reproductive organ, drawn next to it. (tr. by PDS, posted 13 January 2015)


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