Chairman of the Conference of European Rabbis and Chief Rabbi of Moscow, Pinchas Goldschmidt, apologised to Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov for his remarks regarding Muslims. The video with the rabbi’s explanations was published on Kadyrov’s Instagram page.
Goldschmidt admitted, despite noting that his words were taken out of context, that he made a mistake in not being careful during a conversation with journalists.
‘These words were said in the context of criticism of [US president] Trump’s new decree, banning the entry of Muslims to the United States. I didn’t say during the interview that Muslims were terrorists. I always say that one shouldn’t generalise, but make a clear distinction between radical Islam and the true religion. I am sorry that I wasn’t careful with my wording this time and didn’t make this necessary distinction, which offended my colleagues. If I offended religious people, I’m sorry, because I’m myself a religious person. I hope you’ll understand’, Goldschmidt said, in his video address to the Chechen President.
On 8 February, Goldschmidt said during an interview with Russian news agency RIA, that 99% of terrorists were Muslims. The rabbi also said that Jews were on the front line of the war on terror in Europe.
The statement caused a major stir within Russia’s Muslim community, and a number of Muslim leaders spoke out in defence of Islam. Chief Mufti of Chechnya, Salakh Mezhiyev, released a statement in which he talked of the ‘60-year-long occupation of Palestine and the destruction of local populations by the Zionists’.
Writing on his Instagram page, the Chief Mufti stated: ‘I declare that instead of counting the percentage of terrorists among Muslims, the rabbi should recall history, and say that for the past sixty years, radical Jews have been killing Palestinian civilians, seizing the land of Palestine, burning villages, appropriating their property and culture, which is a continuous process of genocide of an entire people. Zionist occupiers have no equals when it comes to terrorism and extremism, as their brutality against peaceful Muslims knows no borders’, he wrote.
Kadyrov’s reaction was far more reserved than many of the angry statements from other Muslims. According to him, many didn’t understand the meaning of the rabbi’s words, and that this was the fault of the media.
‘One can’t deny that the media often provokes a politician or a religious activist to make harsh statements, distorting the essence of the conversation, bringing minor details said in the context of other things to the fore. I believe that we should end the subject of Pinchas Goldschmidt’s interview’, Kadyrov said.
The head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, has publicly accused three Russian lawmakers — Daghestani Federation Council Senator Suleiman Kerimov, as well as State Duma MPs Bekkhan Barakhoev and Rizvan Kurbanov — of plotting to assassinate him and threatened to declare a blood feud against them.
At a meeting with Chechnya’s commanders and security forces leaders on 9 October, Kadyrov, speaking in Chechen, reportedly claimed to have information about a contract on his life. He warned that if the thre
A man who set fire to a Quran and was subsequently beaten up by Adam Kadyrov while in detention in Chechnya has been charged with high treason for allegedly sharing information with Ukrainian security services.
The Volgograd Prosecutor’s Office approved the charges against 20-year-old Nikita Zhuravel on Thursday. He faces up to life in prison if convicted.
Zhuravel gained public attention after footage purportedly of him burning a Quran appeared on social media. He was arrested and later
The Mufti of Chechnya and known advisor to Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, Salakh Mezhiev, has been elected chair of the Coordination Centre of Muslims of the North Caucasus.
On 28 September, the Council of Muftis unanimously elected Mezhiyev during a meeting in Cherkessk, the capital city of Karachay–Cherkessia.
‘I congratulate the respected Sheikh Salakh-Khadzhi Mezhiev on his election to this post. I am confident that he will justify the high trust placed in him by religious leaders o
Exiled from their republic due to threats to their lives, Chechen activists in the West navigate a difficult balance between visibility and caution, facing erasure by both Russian and Western society. However, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine might offer Chechnya and its activists a shift in the tides.
‘Ukraine’s incredible incursion into the Kursk region made me finally believe that Russia could soon be defeated’. This is what Ali Bakaev, a Chechen online activist who now lives in London tells m
Chairman of the Conference of European Rabbis and Chief Rabbi of Moscow, Pinchas Goldschmidt, apologised to Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov for his remarks regarding Muslims. The video with the rabbi’s explanations was published on Kadyrov’s Instagram page.
