Religious Hostility Growing in Russia

President Putin urges not to incite  ethnic conflicts

A French court  has recently discharged writer Michel Houellebecq, who was sued because of his insulting remarks against the Muslim religion.

In his interview to Italian Lire magazine Houellebecq stated that “the most stupid religion is Islam.” French Muslims claimed in return that Houellebecq was propagandizing hatred against Islam. They said  that the writer provoked violence with that statement,  as well as incited a religious conflict.  A group of French Muslims eventually decided to sue Michel Houellebecq. However, the court dismissed their suit and found that the write did not commit any crime with those words that he had said.

Prose writer Farid Nagimov said that the writer’s actions could not be justified due to his extremely negative attitude to Islam. “A person’s talent does not give him or her a right to incite  a national or confessional contradiction and insult the feelings of the faithful,” Farid Nagimov said.

In the meantime, Michel Houellebecq's new book is about to be released in Russia. This is not a pleasant piece of news really, especially against the background of the recent tragic events in Moscow. The sentiments of religious and national hostility are growing in Russia at present moment. President Putin believes that it is very important not to allow such a conflict to happen. Otherwise, it would totally destabilize the situation in the country.

The presidium of the Central Muslim Spiritual Administration presented its condolences to the relatives of those people, who died as a result of the hostage-taking act of terrorism in Moscow. Later, the presidium stated that the “dignity of  our great homeland Russia has been preserved.” The members of the  presidium also pointed out  the special role of the Russian president in the struggle with terrorists, “who thought that they could run people’s lives like God.”

The Central Muslim Spiritual Administration pointed out that “one should treasure the mutual trust of the peoples of Russia in every way possible, for this is the most valuable gift from heaven and the most precious thing that was left for the Russian people  over the recent ten years.” The statement from the Central Muslim Spiritual Administration contained a hope that Russia would be cleaned from terrorism: “We do hope that the spiritual and moral rebirth of the Homeland at peace and  consent  of the traditional confessions will become real in our country.”

It seems that peace and consent for various traditional religious confessions is a great concern not for Russia alone. IRNA news agency reported that the conference “The Dialogue Between the Islamic World, the West and the United States of America” started working in the Spanish city of Granada. The participants of the conference discuss the problems of the peaceful co-existence for Muslims and Christians.

Sergey Yugov
PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Dmitry Sudakov