Return-Path: <sentto-279987-2207-1001138215-fc=all.net@returns.onelist.com> Delivered-To: fc@all.net Received: from 204.181.12.215 by localhost with POP3 (fetchmail-5.1.0) for fc@localhost (single-drop); Fri, 21 Sep 2001 22:59:10 -0700 (PDT) Received: (qmail 9755 invoked by uid 510); 22 Sep 2001 05:57:21 -0000 Received: from n22.groups.yahoo.com (216.115.96.72) by 204.181.12.215 with SMTP; 22 Sep 2001 05:57:21 -0000 X-eGroups-Return: sentto-279987-2207-1001138215-fc=all.net@returns.onelist.com Received: from [10.1.4.55] by cj.egroups.com with NNFMP; 22 Sep 2001 05:56:55 -0000 X-Sender: fc@big.all.net X-Apparently-To: iwar@onelist.com Received: (EGP: mail-7_3_2_2); 22 Sep 2001 05:56:55 -0000 Received: (qmail 55302 invoked from network); 22 Sep 2001 05:56:55 -0000 Received: from unknown (10.1.10.27) by l9.egroups.com with QMQP; 22 Sep 2001 05:56:55 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO big.all.net) (65.0.156.78) by mta2 with SMTP; 22 Sep 2001 05:56:55 -0000 Received: (from fc@localhost) by big.all.net (8.9.3/8.7.3) id WAA04471 for iwar@onelist.com; Fri, 21 Sep 2001 22:56:55 -0700 Message-Id: <200109220556.WAA04471@big.all.net> To: iwar@onelist.com (Information Warfare Mailing List) Organization: I'm not allowed to say X-Mailer: don't even ask X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.5 PL1] From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net> Mailing-List: list iwar@yahoogroups.com; contact iwar-owner@yahoogroups.com Delivered-To: mailing list iwar@yahoogroups.com Precedence: bulk List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:iwar-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com> Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2001 22:56:55 -0700 (PDT) Reply-To: iwar@yahoogroups.com Subject: [iwar] [fc:Russian.Muslims.fear."Islamophobia".following.US.attacks] Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Saturday, September 22 11:04 AM SGT Russian Muslims fear "Islamophobia" following US attacks MOSCOW, Sept 22 (AFP) - Russia's 20 million Muslims are fearful their country will succumb to "Islamophobia" thanks largely to the media, which, they claim, often confound Islam and terrorism in their coverage of the September 11 attacks on the United States and the war in Chechnya. "Islamophobia is developing in Russian media," mufti Nafigulla Ashirov, head of Muslims living in Russia's Asian regions, said a week after the attacks. "From the first minutes of that tragedy, an unprecedented anti-Islamic campaign was launched in Russia," Muslim lawmaker Abdul-Vakhed Niazov said, accusing the Russian media of extensively covering anti-Islamic comments offered by Israeli officials. "Immediately after those attacks, police and security services visited the majority of Islamic organisations based in Moscow," Ashirov said. Russian Muslims found themselves under intense scrutiny by law enforcement agents after blasts in Moscow in September 1999 which cost some 300 lives and served as pretext to launch a new offensive against Chechnya. Since the beginning of the "anti-terrorist campaign" against the breakaway republic in October 1999, people with non-Slavic looks have been constantly subjected to identity checks and harrassment by police, Ashirov claimed. "We have already seen police throw Caucasian-looking people to the ground and we are no longer afraid of that. We fear it may worsen and that massive persecutions of Muslims may begin," Ashirov said. "Police officials think that if the (Afghanistan's extremist militia) Taliban have attacked America, Chechens will soon attack Moscow," said Suleiman Askhabov, 22, a Chechen student who came to Moscow's central mosque for daily prayers. "I was detained a few days ago in the street. Police humiliate me simply because I'm Chechen. I have to pay them 500 rubles just so they let me go," he complained. "There are Muslims and there are terrorists. Those are different things, but the media confound the two and do it more often lately," Yuri, a 33-year-old Muslim, lamented. "This hysteria in the television and newspapers already begins to affect the society. I sense a lot of hostility toward me, especially in state institutions," 35-year-old Umar told AFP. "Even after the Moscow blasts there (wasn't) such an anti-Islamic hysteria," Ali Polossin, counsellor of Russia's Mufti Council, remarked. Russian human rights groups have warned against "mixing up such different things as international terrorism, fundamentalist Islam, the Taliban, Chechen war, regimes in Iraq and Libya, and the Middle East conflict." Russia, which has dubbed its new offensive against Chechnya a fight against terrorism, may see the US attacks as justification of its policy toward the rebel province. "We are particularly concerned about the temptation to use the events in the United States to justify the use of force in Chechnya," former dissident Sergei Kovalev and Yelena Bonner, widow of Nobel winner Andrei Sakharov, said earlier. "Accusing the whole Islamic world of terrorism is not a good attitude," head of Russia's communist party Gennady Zyuganov said recently, adding that "one should not forget" Russia's multi-million Muslim population. Of Russia's 145 million people, some 20 million are Muslim. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Get your FREE VeriSign guide to security solutions for your web site: encrypting transactions, securing intranets, and more! http://us.click.yahoo.com/XrFcOC/m5_CAA/yigFAA/kgFolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> ------------------ http://all.net/ Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : 2001-09-29 21:08:47 PDT