Putin Met with Muftis of Russia’s Muslim Spiritual Administrations

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During a trip to Ufa, President V V Putin met with muftis from the Muslim spiritual administrations. Meeting participants discussed current problems relating to cooperation between the government and Muslim religious organisations. Putin said:

I think that it’s important that we meet regularly and discuss issues that interest Russian Muslims, holders of other faiths, and all the citizens of our country in general. Today, in Ufa, we celebrate the 225th anniversary of the foundation of the Muslim Spiritual Assembly established by imperial decree. At that time, at the end of the 18th century, Islam won official recognition as a traditional Russian religion. Naturally, this helped Muslims become true Russian patriots. Islam became a significant factor in our social and political life and made an invaluable contribution to our society’s spiritual and cultural development. Once again, I congratulate you on this historic date.

I’d like to thank you for your work and talk to you about current global trends, including in religious life. Today, an active, and not always positive, process of politicising religion is underway at the global level. This occurs in different directions and in different religions, including Islam. In these circumstances, government authorities and the Russian Muslim community have new problems and challenges. Of course, we can only resolve them together; we’ve talked about this together many times now. Some political parties use Islam, or rather its radical tendencies (which, incidentally, are historically foreign to Russian Muslims), in order to weaken our state, to create zones of so-called externally-driven conflicts in Russian territory, to encourage friction between different ethnic groups and within the Muslim community, and to fan separatist sympathies in the regions. I’m convinced that we must counter such attempts to create divisions using Russian Muslims’ faith in their historical traditions and partnerships with other religions, particularly the Russian Orthodox Church.

Of course, hierarchical command structures are alien to Islam (as, to be frank, they are to many other world religions), which has a variety of different schools and movements. However, Russian Muslims have always been united in their service to society and the state, and against external enemies and all forms of extremism. I am sure that we can maintain and strengthen this unity, even today. We should see Islam’s new “socialisation” as developing traditional Muslim lifestyles, thinking, and views in accordance with current social realities, as opposed to the ideology of radicals, bringing believers back to the Middle Ages. New forms of work… through Muslim cultural centres, Islamic science and education centres, and youth and women’s clubs… are important here. I believe that you can make an important contribution to the social adaptation of people who come to live and work in Russia. Many of them share your religion. They need to hear your voice and feel your presence; otherwise, they become victims of propaganda from various fundamentalist sects.

I also believe that the voice of Russian Muslim leaders should resonate louder in the international arena, amongst the global Islamic community. Today, tensions between the West and the Islamic world are on the rise. Some people try to mess around with this issue and throw fuel on the fire. I want to tell you straight away… we aren’t interested in this. However, at the same time, today, Russia’s presence is in increased demand in the Middle East and the Islamic world as a whole. Moreover, we need to be more proactive, debunking harmful attempts to manipulate humanity using countries and peoples, information and public consciousness. Russia isn’t interested in splitting up or redrawing the Islamic world; on the contrary, it maintains a consistent steady position in favour of strengthening its unity.

In order to meet the challenges of our time successfully, it’s necessary, firstly, to ensure the high credibility of Russia’s Muslim clergy and its Islamic theological schools. Today, there are 82 centralised registered Islamic religious organisations in Russia. Muslims are well aware of the first sura of the Quran, according to which there is no other prophet except Muhammad. However, at the same time we all understand that we mustn’t forget the spiritual leaders themselves… firstly, they’re people with moral authority that they must use for beneficial purposes. The clergy should be educated and enlightened people who can give a clear and impeccable canonical assessment of the most severe challenges and threats we face today. This initiative should be yours; we can’t pass it on to informal leaders who’re actively involved with the faithful. There are individuals who tend to support theological schools and extremist ideas alien to our country, seek to undermine traditional Islam’s position here, the unity of Russian society, and ultimately desire our country’s collapse.

Based on centuries of national experience in religious education and its rich theological heritage, Russian Islam has everything necessary to have its say in development. Therefore, one of our most important tasks is to reconstruct our own Islamic theological schools, which would ensure the sovereignty of Russia’s spiritual space. Most importantly, the majority of international Muslim scholars would recognise such a move. Such schools must respond to the most recent developments in Russia and the world, and evaluate them in ways that are both understandable and credible for believers. I’m sure that if we can achieve this, it’d help you to provide a clear moral assessment of both good and criminal acts.

27 January 2018

RMC Russian Mufti Council

https://muslim.ru/en/articles/127/4804/

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8 May 2016. HH Shows the Way on How We Should View Islam

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Think of this image whenever you think of saying or posting anything critical about Muslims (or people of another faith in general). HH teaches us through his actions (actions do speak louder than words do). By the way… HH is close friends with Mufti Talgat Tadzhuddin (the cleric pictured). HH is a good role model, no? DO STAY AWAY FROM THE AMERICAN RIGHT (especially, from scurrilous yellow publications like the American Conservative and the National Review)… all that they’ll do is make you fall into the ditch. Look at reality, not “conservative” bullshit. Take Hamtramck in Michigan (and another city that I forget… Dearborn?)… it’s a heavily Muslim city (and Hamtramck recently elected a Muslim mayor). Hmm… the Polish meat markets are still there… they still sell PORK kolbasa and serdelki. Many of the WTC victims were Muslims… there were many more Muslims killed by the terrorists than the number of terrorists! The mostly Muslim Syrian Arab Army and their Muslim Iranian allies liberated Palmyra from ISIS (assisted by Russian airstrikes and spetsnaz… whilst the rightwing Anglos backed ISIS). Need I continue? Senseless Muslim-bashing has to stop, especially, from priests. There are good and bad in every bunch (Westboro Baptist and those like it are really Wahhabis under the skin). In any case, rightwing talking points aren’t Orthodox… HH is friendly with Mufti Ravil Gainutdin (the head Muslim cleric in Moscow) and HH gladly ate with his Muslim friends in the Ramadan Tent on Poklonnaya Gora… need I say more?

Friends don’t let friends repeat rightwing horseshit about Muslims… full stop. One last thing… I get much intel on HH’s doings from friends, but I always vet it via patriarchia.ru (the OFFICIAL MP website)… not everything “out there” is righteous. You’d do well to not believe anything about the Church unless you can see it there. There’s much bullshit abroad on the net from rightwinger “conservatives”. It’s corrosive, it’s wrongheaded, and it doesn’t reflect real Church teachings. Have a care… all righties are opportunistic liars… do remember their motto, “Winning is the only thing”.

BMD

Gazprom Ups Rates for Gas to the Ukraine… Crimean Tatars Can Regain Property Under Russian Law… Yarosh to Run for Ukrainian President

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On Tuesday, Reuters reported that Gazprom said that it was increasing gas rates for the Ukraine to 385.50 USD (13,513 Roubles. 425.25 CAD. 417 AUD. 279.50 Euros. 232 UK Pounds) per 1,000 cubic metres (35,315 cubic feet) in the second quarter from the previous rate of 268.50 USD (9,413 Roubles. 296.25 CAD. 290.75 AUD. 194.75 Euros. 161.50 UK Pounds). Gazprom CEO Aleksei Miller said that the Ukraine’s debt for unpaid gas bills stood at 1.7 billion USD (59.6 billion Roubles. 1.88 billion CAD. 1.84 billion AUD. 1.24 billion Euros. 1.03 billion UK Pounds) as of Tuesday.

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On Tuesday, Interfax reported that the Federation Council approved a bill at a special session ending Russian-Ukrainian treaties on the Black Sea Fleet. The law on Russian naval bases in the Crimea passed unanimously. The draft law invalidates the Russian-Ukrainian treaties of 28 May 1997 dividing the Soviet Black Sea Fleet, on the status and conditions for the Black Sea Fleet to remain in the Crimea, on mutual payments related to the Black Sea Fleet, and a further similar agreement signed in Kharkov on 21 April 2010. A note observed, “Following the signing of an agreement between the Russian Federation and the Crimean entities on 18 March 2014 on their accession to the RF and on our forming new federal subjects within the RF, the Russian-Ukrainian agreements for leasing base facilities from the Ukraine for the Black Sea Fleet became irrelevant and moot”. The note also referenced articles 61 and 62 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties of 1969, according to which Russia has the right to end relevant treaties.

Editor:

There’s no need to ask the Ukraine whether the RF can base military forces on its own territory… which the Crimea became after the all-Crimea referendum. Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and John McCain can rant and bawl all that they want, but the USA has no power to affect this outcome (McCain’s never gotten over being shot down by a Soviet-made SAM… invalidating his childish hallucinations of personal invulnerability). The Ukrainian junta is on a slo-mo track to self-destruction, and the US Republican Party is screaming bloody murder. You know whom NOT to vote for in November… don’t vote for those who want to trample on the motherland for the sake of the McMansion filth.

BMD

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In an article published on Tuesday, Berliner Zeitung, one of Germany’s leading newspapers, said that Yuliya Timoshenko mustn’t become the next president of the Ukraine. According to Berliner Zeitung observer Frank Herold, Timoshenko as president would be catastrophic for Ukraine, writing, “Timoshenko is part of the Ukrainian problem, not a solution to it… She fell out of touch with reality, positioning herself as a candidate that’d unite Ukrainians, whilst, in fact, polarising them more than anyone else. Timoshenko’s belligerent rhetoric is very alarming. She vowed to recover the Crimea, but stressed that it was only possible through war. So far, it’s unclear what the Ukraine’s future priorities are, but the country would definitely miss opportunities if Timoshenko becomes president… she obliged the oligarchs to play according to the rules, but forgot to explain [to Ukrainians] how she scraped up her fortune. A Timoshenko victory would have catastrophic consequences for the Ukraine, because she favours the country’s partition… Timoshenko has discredited herself. She’s unfit to be president, because she belongs to the ‘old’ Ukraine, a Ukraine in which the political establishment was split into two corrupted kleptocratic groups… one ruled, whilst the other stood in opposition”.

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Aleksei Pilko, Director of the Eurasian Communications Centre, said, “The USA hoped that the Ukrainian crisis would weaken Russia, instead, it ended up in Russia regaining the Crimea and becoming stronger, whilst the Ukraine is in its worst political turmoil in the post-Soviet era. The USA suffered a major geopolitical defeat in the Ukraine because it profoundly underestimated Russia. Blinded by their post-Cold War illusions, American strategists wrongly perceived Russia as lacking political willpower and military strength, perpetually teetering on the brink of economic collapse. Such illusions dominated the American political mentality for a quarter of a century; they’re behind US Permanent Representative to the UN Samantha Power’s hysterical remark that Russia lost the Cold War and should behave accordingly. Those illusions explain why US President Barack Obama called Russia a ‘weak regional power’. The overblown cult of ‘victory in the Cold War’, hammered by the media into the minds of Americans, led to political shortsightedness and the inability to take a sober look at new global realities“.

Editor:

The USA should watch its rhetoric. We don’t need a repeat of the events of August 1914, when no one listened to anyone else. It didn’t “win” the Cold War… it ended by mutual exhaustion. Indeed, one of the causes of the ’08 US meltdown was leftover Reagan debts… Slobberin’ Ronnie paid for the Cold War on tick, and the GOP refused to pay its own bills (the rich needed their cut cuts… poor babies!). Gorbachyov was a fawning zapadnik… the collapse of the USSR wasn’t due to the USA at all, it occurred due to Gorbachyov’s incompetence. Since 1991, there’s been a power vacuüm. Now, it’s no longer empty… Russia and China stand united against the American grasp for global hegemony (“The Global War against Terror”… brought to you by the greatest killer of innocents since 1991!). Don’t the Republicans realise that their bellicose rhetoric only drives the Russians and Chinese into a closer embrace? Oh, well, it’s proof that the title “Stupid Party” isn’t simply an accusation.

BMD

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According to “112” Ukrainian TV, Igor Mazur, the Right Sector leader in Kiev, stated that the Right Sector intends to continue arming itself unless the situation on the Ukrainian borders and in Kiev changes, saying, “If the war continues to come to the Ukraine, the Right Sector will be in the first trenches, it’d defend the Ukrainian state. A sufficient number of our enemies know that”.

Editor:

Brave words! However, cached small arms and explosives don’t stop modern armies. However, it does mean that the Ukie nationalists intend turning to terrorism once they fall… but after all, they’re the spiritual children of Bandera, a mass murderer and criminal. They’re also stupid… terrorism will turn the people against them. I fear that the West’s overweening arrogance will lead to the deaths of thousands of innocent Ukrainians (already, it’s led to the brutalisation of thousands). Victoria Nuland deserves to swing at the end of a rope for that, but she won’t… she’ll live out her days in prosperity… woe to those who call good “evil” and evil “good”.

By the way, I’m not threatening Ms Nuland, I’m merely pointing up that her actions fit the Nürnberg criteria. We hung Nazis for that, and, if there were justice (and there isn’t), she’d share their fate. I’d never harm her or threaten her… I’m not that stupid. Let her live out her life… she won’t be bothered by any scruples or qualms (indeed, she considers herself quite moral and spotless). It tells you much about l’Condition inhumaine, doesn’t it?

BMD

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Mufti Ravil Gainutdin, head of the Russian Council of Muftis, who just returned from a trip to the Crimea after being invited by Emirali Ablayev, the Mufti of Crimea, emphasised that the Crimea’s reunification with Russia would open new opportunities for Crimean Tatars to build a new life on their own land. Now, as the Crimea is part of Russia, Crimean Tatars would be able to reclaim mosques and Islāmic schools seized by the Soviet government under a Russian law governing confiscated religious property, it allows for the return of property now owned by the state or municipal bodies to religious organisations.

TASS reported that Mufti Gainutdin said that Muslims in the Crimea are strong enough to withstand radical pseudo-Islamic religious trends and to protect ordinary Muslims from their influence. He said that the Ukrainian junta gave a green light to creating various forces opposed to the Mufti Spiritual Authority of Crimea and official religious organisations to weaken the Crimean Tatar population’s influence on the peninsula and the Muslim Spiritual Board’s credibility, saying, “The Mufti of Crimea is a wise man who wouldn’t declare war on anybody because he believes that the word of enlightenment is a clergyman’s main weapon. He keeps Hizb ut-Tahrir and similar movements under control. The aim of Islam is to educate and train clergymen who can take the word of Almighty Allah to every believer. Russian Muslims are ready to share their experience of creating a system of religious education with their fellow-Muslims in the Crimea”.

Mufti Gainutdin visited Crimea on 27-29 March; he said that many towns, mosques, and Islāmic schools were in a dire state after the past twenty years. Sharing his impressions from meeting Crimean Tatar spiritual leaders and ordinary Muslims, he emphasised, “Now, Crimean Tatars will have the right to restore their ownership of cult institutions that the government confiscated from them; they’ll take back buildings that belonged to their religious organisations. Crimea’s incorporation into Russia will open new opportunities for Crimean Tatars to build a new life on their own land and overcome the consequences of Stalin’s deportation. They understand that contemporary Russia is doing a lot to create conditions for Muslim spiritual and cultural development. The Muslims of the Crimea look forward to starting a new life, Crimean Tatars worried as they lacked rehabilitation over the past 20 years. Besides, Crimean Tatars had no basis to improve their condition, to stop being outcasts, and start living normal lives. Now, Crimean Tatars realise that they’re going to get rehabilitation at last. They aren’t going to leave the Crimea; they hope that Russia will respect their rights. Crimean Tatars believe in Russia. They want to be united with our 20-million-strong Umma, which is well-protected, which advances, and which lives a full life”.

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On Tuesday, a spokesman for the Federal Migration Service told ITAR-TASS that the number of Ukrainian nationals who applied at the Moscow department of the Federal Migration Service seeking permits for long-term stays in Russia increased by seven times, noting, “The number of Ukrainian citizens who applied at the Moscow department of the Federal Migration Service alone for a permit for a long-term stay in Russia has increased by seven times”, however they didn’t give exact figures. Earlier, Nikolai Gavrichkov, a spokesman for the Moscow department of the Federal Migration Service, said that more than 20,000 Ukrainians contacted the Moscow department since the beginning of the year, of whom 14,000 sought work permits.

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ITAR-TASS reported that the Ukrainian Central Election Commission finally registered Dmitri Yarosh, the leader of the extremist Right Sector, as a presidential candidate in the Ukrainian presidential election scheduled for 25 May. Earlier on Tuesday, the election commission put off considering Yarosh’s registration documents to clarify some financial aspects of the procedure. Some commission members voiced doubts that the Yarosh personally placed the deposit of 2.5 million Gryvnias (7.8 million Roubles. 221,000 USD. 244,000 CAD. 239,000 AUD. 160,000 Euros. 133,000 UK Pounds) required for participation in the election. According to Zhanna Usenko-Chernaya, a member of the Central Election Commission, Yarosh and his family members declared no income on their tax returns for 2013. After Oshchadbank confirmed that Yarosh personally deposited the above sum, the Central Election Commission registered him as a presidential contender.

Also on Tuesday, the Ukrainian Central Election Commission officially registered Oleg Tyagnibok, the Svoboda leader, Anatoly Gritsenko, a Rada People’s Deputy, Nataliya Korolevskaya, the former Minister of Social Policy, Olga Bogomolets, a public figure, and Vasili Tsushko, the ex-head of the Antimonopoly Committee. Thus, by now, twenty people are officially registered candidates for President of the Ukraine.

1 April 2014

Voice of Russia World Service

http://voiceofrussia.com/2014_04_01/Gazprom-says-Ukraines-debt-for-unpaid-gas-bills-stands-at-1-711-bln-1778/

http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_04_01/Russian-Senators-approve-termination-of-Russian-Ukrainian-treaties-on-Black-Sea-Fleet-2080/

http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_04_01/Tymoshenko-s-presidency-akin-to-disaster-German-newspaper-Berliner-Zeitung-5486/

http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_04_01/Washington-blinded-by-post-Cold-War-illusions-9638/

http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_04_01/Right-Sector-to-continue-arming-itself-if-Ukraine-situation-does-not-change-2232/

http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_04_01/Crimea-s-reunification-with-Russia-to-open-new-opportunities-for-Crimean-Tatars-3106/

http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_04_01/Number-of-Ukrainians-seeking-permit-to-stay-in-Russia-goes-up-by-7-times-9329/

http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_04_01/Ukraines-Right-Sector-radical-leader-Dmitry-Yarosh-officially-registered-as-presidential-candidate-3172/

Ramadan Tent in Moscow will Open at the Poklonnaya Gora Memorial Complex

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Mufti Ravil Ismagilovich Gainutdin (1959- ), President of the Council of Muftis in Russia, is the host of the Ramadan Tent in Moscow…

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Scenes from the 2010 Ramadan Tent on Poklonnaya Gora… it’s pitched on one of the most “sacred” secular sites in Russia, the main memorial complex to the fallen of the VOV… you can’t get more narodnost (“folk-minded”) than that! Last year, Ravil Ismagilovich invited Fr Vsevolod Chaplin, the closest confidant to His Nibs, to the tent, and Fr Vsevolod GLADLY came… that’s the TRUTH about Orthodox/Muslim relations!

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On 15 August, the annual “Ramadan Tent” cultural/charity project will open near the memorial mosque in the Poklonnaya Gora Memorial Complex in Moscow. This is the sixth year for this event. Since 2010, the Moscow City government included the Ramadan Tent as one of its officially-sponsored Muslim events in the city, the official website of the Council of Muftis of Russia said on Friday. Every day, the tent will present a cultural programme and dinner. The tent will be open daily in the evening from 16 to 29 August. Everyone is welcome to attend the planned activities, whatever their nationality or religion. The tent will host up to 600 people each day.

12 August 2011

Interfax-Religion

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=41833

Editor’s Note:

If you hear anti-Muslim propaganda from konvertsy, shut them up with the truth! Christians and Muslims have gotten on well in Russia for five centuries, and that’s that. Don’t allow the konvertsy to contaminate the Church with their Sectarian-style hatred… oppose them at every juncture and shout them down. The Church is what She is… and She isn’t a carbon-copy of the Sectarian conventicles down the street. Our Lord Christ and His Truth are worth fighting for… don’t let these clownish bastards suck out the Reality of the Church and replace it with Sectarian goo. God expects that of us…

BMD