Medvedev refers to the jihadists’ “unorthodox views on Islam,” indicating that like his counterparts in the West, he believes that Islam is a Religion of Peaceâ„¢. Yet the relative peacefulness of the Islam in the Caucasus was a product of cultural accommodation, not theological reform. Medvedev would no doubt be quite surprised — as surprised as, say, Gordon Brown would be — to learn that all the mainstream sects and schools of jurisprudence teach warfare against unbelievers in order to subjugate them as inferiors under the rule of Islamic law. “Medvedev turns to Muslim clerics to counter radicals,” by Denis Dyomkin for Reuters, August 28 (thanks to Natalie):
SOCHI, Russia, Aug 28 (Reuters) – President Dmitry Medvedev on Friday urged Russia’s top Muslim clerics to join forces to stop radical Islamist groups wooing young people in the turbulent North Caucasus.
He proposed a Muslim television channel and controls on access to Islamic education abroad as ways of tackling Islamist insurgency in the region….
A wave of suicide bomb attacks and armed assaults on police and security forces in Chechnya and next-door Ingushetia and Dagestan has marked the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in Russia’s North Caucasus….
Medvedev backed the idea of confronting radical Islamist propaganda but he indicated the options were limited.
“We cannot force people to give up Internet or close these sites,” he said, proposing such alternatives as a television channel to promote mainstream Islam.
“We need to think about finding a channel which would offer teaching and comprehensive explanation of Islam that is traditional for our country,” he said without elaborating.
Medvedev also proposed stronger control over young people returning to Russia after studying Islam abroad. Mainstream clerics say many Islamic schools in Arab countries spread radical teachings.
“There indeed must be control,” Medvedev said. “Unfortunately these people are returning … (and) bring back unorthodox views on Islam,” he said….