MASS ACTION AGAINST OFFENDING BELIEVERS' FEELINGS NOT PERMITTED IN MOSCOW
City Hall asks law enforcement agents to analyze real goals of initiators of protest
Interfax-Religiia, 19 January 2015
Moscow authorities rejected an application for conducting in the capital on 25 January a mass action against offending believers' feelings.
"We have an application which a group of citizens submitted on 15 January. We have reviewed it and we will issue a refusal," the director of the Department of Regional Security and Combating Corruption of Moscow city government, Aleksei Maiorov, told Interfax. He said that no social and religious leaders have anything to do with the planning of this action.
"In our opinion, the citizens whose names appear on the application have frequently tried to organize actions in Moscow which bear more of a provocational nature and not a constructive one," A. Maiorov stated.
He asked law enforcement agencies "to carefully analyze the real goals that the persons who announced the action are pursuing."
Earlier on the Internet there appeared reports
that an application had been submitted to Moscow city hall for
conducting on 25 January in the capital a mass action with up to
100,000 persons participating. Organizers of the event stated that
they were planning the event as a sign of protest against
publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad. (tr. by PDS,
posted 19 January 2015)
MOSCOW MUSLIMS DO NOT SEE SENSE IN CONDUCTING PROTEST AGAINST PUBLICING CARICATURES
Interfax-Religiia, 19 January 2015
The mufti of Moscow, the Central region, and Chuvashia and member of the Public Forum of RF, Albir Krganov, does not support the idea of conducting in Moscow a rally against publications that offend religious feelings.
"This event was not cleared with official religious structures of Moscow and we did not give a Muslim blessing for it. I can even state that in the event of their (i.e., the initiators of the rally—IF) appeal to us, we would refuse," A. Krganov told Interfax. He said that in a "time of troubles" the Quran does not recommend participating in similar events.
"In the current situation, Russia does not stand in solidarity with those who try to bring havoc against Islam. On the contrary, hierarchs of other confessions have stated that one must not mock the feelings of other believing people," the mufti emphasized.
In his turn, the first deputy chairman of the Ecclesiastical Board of Muslims of RF, Damir Gizatullin, thinks the decision of the government of Moscow to reject the conducting of a mass actions in defense of believer's feelings on 25 January is a correct one.
"It should be noted that it is this day that Muslims celebrate the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad, Mawlid al-Nabi. For that time we have invited performers of religious music, people with a worldwide name, and celebrations are planned, and overlapping some events on the other one would be inappropriate," D. Gizatullin told the news agency.
Besides, in his opinion, the very idea of a protest against oppression of Muslims in Moscow has no sense. "The residents of our capital have for a long time, beginning in the middle of the 16th century, preserved a tradition of mutual respect for one another," the representative of the muftiate recalled.
"Of course," he added, "we do not agree with the fact that some journalists abroad have indulged in publishing caricatures of the Prophet in their own interpretation of democracy. Evidently in France there are no laws that would protect the feelings of believers. We have such laws, praise Allah."
In addition, as D. Gizatullin noted, a mass outpouring of protesters onto Moscow streets "will not facilitate stability and order, and peace and harmony are the most important things that have been given to us by our ancestors and that we should maintain today and multiply." (tr. by PDS, posted 19 January 2015)
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