Mufti Charges
Anti-Semitism
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Moscow (JTA) — The leader of
Moscow's Muslim community has
charged that the Russian Ortho-
dox Church is riddled with anti-
Semitism.
Mufti Ravil Gainutdin made
the charge that the church is "in-
fected with anti-Semitism" in an
interview with Evreyskaya Gaze-
ta, Moscow's bi-weekly Jewish
newspaper.
The mufti also accused the
church of ignoring both Muslim
and Jewish interests in Russia.
"Russian Muslims are very
worried that the Orthodox estab-
lishment seeks to maintain its rul-
ing position in society while
ignoring the fact that Russia is
a multi-ethnic state with vast
non-Christian minorities," said
the mufti, who serves as spiritu-
al leader for the Muslim commu-
nities in Moscow and Central
Russia.
The Muslim community of
Greater Moscow numbers about
12 million. Other provinces with-
in the Russian federation — such
as Tatarstan, Dagestan and
Chechnya — are predominantly
populated by Muslims.
The mufti's comments come as
Russia prepares for parliamen-
tary elections in December.
With the elections' imminent
approach, Muslim participation
in Russia's political life became
the subject of intense debate af-
ter an Islamic political group, the
Muslim Union of Russia, declared
it would run its own slate rather
than back existing parties.
The idea of an organized Is-
lamic political bloc riled the Russ-
ian Orthodox Patriarch, Alexei
who warned Muslim leaders that
if they persisted in organizing a
denomination-based political bloc,
Orthodox Christians would do the
same.
But Muslim religious and po-
litical leaders countered that they
were simply trying to protect the
interests of their constituents,
who they said lacked representa-
tion in the Russian government.
The-Islamic leaders denied that
their political bloc has any reli-
gious connection.
The Muslim Union of Russia is
headed by Akhmet Khalitov, a
former aide to Russian ultrana-
tionalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky
and one of the founders of the
Russian Liberal Democratic Par-
ty, which Mr. Zhirinovsky heads.
Because of Mr. Khalitov's ties
to Mr. Zhirinovsky, the Muslim
Union is believed to be an off-
spring of Russian nationalist cir-
cles.
In contrast to the Islamic com-
munity, Jews and other religious
and ethnic minorities are not
seeking separate representation
in the upcoming parliamentary
elections.
The Congress of Ethnic Unions
of Russia, a movement that in-
cluded several different ethnic
groups, dissolved this summer
and allowed its members to throw
their support behind already ex-
isting Russian political parties.
The Jewish and Ukrainian sec-
tions of the congress decided to
join Russia's Choice Party, head-
ed by former Prime Minister
Yegor Gaidar.
In return, Moscow Jewish ac-
tivist and businessman Valery
Engel will run on that party's
slate as a representative of East-
ern Siberia.
Other ethnic groups — includ-
ing Koreans, Armenians and
Kurds — threw their support be-
hind the Inter-Ethnic Union, a
bloc backing the administration
of President Boris Yeltsin.
Support Extended
To Rwandans
Jerusalem (JTA) — An Israeli
support group for Holocaust sur-
vivors and their children will help
Rwandans cope with the psycho-
logical effects of last year's geno-
cide of more than 500,000 of their
people.
Rwanda's ambassador to Is-
rael, Zac Nsanga, said the group
— known as AMCHA — would
participate in a Nov. 1 conference
on genocide to be held in the
Rwandan capital of Kigali. The
conference is expected to draw ex-
perts from around the world.
More than 500,000 people,
most of them members of the
minority Tutsi tribe, were mur-
dered by rival Hutus during 1994.
In the summer of 1994, the Is-
raeli army flew a mobile field hos-
pital to eastern Zaire in order to
treat hundreds of thousands of
Rwandan refugees.
AMCHA director John Lim-
berger said that although it is im-
possible to draw straight parallels
between the Holocaust and the
slaughter in Rwanda, it is im-
portant to do something now to
address the issue openly — some-
thing not done during the Holo-
caust, "when no one else cared."
He said the group hoped to
share its expertise in dealing with
post-traumatic stress.
"In addition to dealing with dis-
placed persons, widows, orphans
and relocation, the government
should also take on the psycho-
logical effects of the genocide, to
prevent some of the things that
will happen down the road," he
told Israel Radio.