UFA. April 3 (Interfax-AVN) - The Central Islamic Department of Moslems of Holy Russia (the former Central Moslem Department of Russia and CIS European Nations) has declared a jihad against the United States, Russian Supreme Mufti Talgat Tadzhuddin told Interfax on Thursday.
This is the second resolution announcing a jihad against a country in Russian history over the last hundred years, Tadzhuddin said. Russian Moslems announced a jihad for the first time against Germany in 1941, Tadzhuddin said.
"Russian Moslems have levers of efficient influence on the United States. For instance, we will raise donations for a fund, and use the money to buy armaments for fighting America and food for the people of Iraq," Tadzhuddin said.
He did not say which particular forms the jihad would take, but noted that results of the holy war might be expected two to three days from now.
Antiwar protesters in Ufa supported the jihad on Thursday. About 2,000 people, most of them school and college students, took part in the authorized protest.
Tadzhuddin took part in the action, as well, to denounce the military campaign of the United States and Great Britain in Iraq and declare the unanimous decision of Russia's 29 muftiats to start the jihad on Thursday. He said they voted for the decision by fax in the early hours of Thursday. The protesters greeted the announcement with loud shouts.
"Any country on earth is God's grace to its people, and none has the right to neglect this holy right," Tadzhuddin said. The cause of the U.S. and British war on Iraq is not oil, but certain strategic plans, he said. "They want to enter into Iran, Azerbaijan and Armenia from Iraq, to come to their ally Shevardnadze (the president of Georgia - Interfax), and approach the border of Russia," the cleric said.
Tadzhuddin told the press after the rally that he did not know the reaction of the administrations of Bashkortostan and Russia to the jihad. "Religion is separated from the state, and we are free to make a decision," Tadzhuddin said.
Meanwhile, head of the Council of Russia's Muftis Ravil Gainutdin said his organization is not planning to declare a jihad against the United States.
"The Moslems of Russia do not declare a jihad, although the situation in Iraq is exacerbating. We must be realistic," Gaunutdin told Interfax on Thursday.
"It is enough that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein has announced a jihad against America," he noted. "Religious leaders should not involve in populism or politicizing. Instead they should pray for the termination of the sufferings of the Iraqi people."