Pundit finds Russian leader’s words about Islam ‘surprising’

BBC Monitoring

Excerpt from report by Gazprom-owned, editorially independent Russian news agency Ekho Moskvy

Moscow, 28 August: Statements made by Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev about the necessity to exercise tough control over the young Russians who study in foreign Islamic universities, are strange at the very least, chairman of the Islamic committee Geydar Dzhemal has told Russian Ekho Moskvy radio.

“It is very strange when President Medvedev, an obvious liberal and an agnostic judging by his persona, makes judgements about what Islam is, what kind of Islam is right or wrong. Even related to his own official confession such judgements would sound too exotic when coming from him, but when he speaks about other confessions, this is extremely surprising,” Dzhemal said. (Passage omitted)

“One can prevent people from going abroad to study, one can – under an agreement with the administration of other Muslim countries – stage problems for Russian students, like it was in Egypt ahead of (US President Barack) Obama’s visit. But the matter is that Islam is a self-sufficient integral system. For 1,400 years now Islam has easily overthrown attempts of various leaders to use it in their interests, to castrate and adjust it; it remains an efficient concept, which withstands violence, injustice, oppression, corruption and lawlessness. If President Medvedev wants to fight this spirit of Islam, it is useless,” Dzhemal added.