Ravil Gaynutdin, the chairman of the Russian Council of Muftis, was so outraged at Silantyev's book that he urged the Orthodox Church to dismiss the writer.
Photo: Dmitry Azarov
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Mufti Anxious to Shape the Personnel of the Moscow Orthodox Church
Dialog between Creeds
Roman Silantyaev, the executive secretary of the Inter-Religious Council of Russia and author of The Modern History of the Islamic Community in Russia which outraged the Russian Council of Muftis, was dismissed yesterday. Mr. Silantyev, however, is not going to apologize for his controversial book, while the muftis insist on his dismissal from the Moscow Patriarchate.
The presidium of the Inter-Religious Council of Russia, embracing the Orthodox, the Muslim, the Jews and the Buddhists, gathered yesterday at an extraordinary session called by Ravil Gaynutdin, the chairman of the Russian Council of Muftis, to evaluate the book The Modern History of the Islamic Community in Russia and decide on Mr. Silantyev’s membership at the organization.
“The Council of Muftis believes that the book gives a one-sided, biased and exclusively negative evaluation of the activities of all Russian Muslim spiritual leaders over the last 15 years,” the Council of Muftis told Kommersant yesterday. The Moscow Patriarchate expressed its official disagreement with the viewpoint of the author, after which Mr. Silantyev said he was ready to resign from the Inter-Religious Council of Russia.
Mr. Silantyev, in its turn, told in an interview with Kommersant that it is important for him to be dismissed at his own request. “I must say that a great part of Muslims and leader Islam scholars welcomed my book, so I’m determined to issue the second publications with some additions,” Mr. Silantyev mentioned his plans. “I haven’t apologized for the book, and I am not going to.”
Ravil Gaynutdin, the chairman of the Russian Council of Muftis, is convinced that “Roman Silantyev has not a moral right to further cooperate with the external relations department of the Russian Orthodox Church as an Islam expert.” The mufti also promised to come up with a nominee for a new executive secretary of the Inter-Religious Council of Russia.
Pavel Korobov, Oxana Alexeeva
All the Article in Russian as of Dec. 21, 2005
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