Medvedev calls on imams to fight radicalism

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev met with Muslim spiritual leaders in Ufa today.
"We understand that only spiritual leaders who preach Islamic values traditional to our country can oppose growing radicalism. Only those who don’t know the true foundations of Islam are being influenced by extremists," Interfax reports Mr Medvedev as saying.
The President noted that any ignorance is dangerous, but religious ignorance is the most threatening. He said that some billion rubles of the Federal budget of 2012 and 2013 will be spent on promoting Islamic education and research.
Some parties use nationalist propaganda to win votes of conservative electors in the upcoming parliamentary elections, but Mr Medvedev disapproved of this approach, saying that our country has always been multi-national and multi-confessional, and we have to stand up to the highest standards of this peaceful brotherly co-existence.