A member of the Presidential Council on Interfaith Relations, Maxim Shevchenko, told Vestnik Kavkaza that Islam and Muslims are being made into enemies by the media. Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev recently gave a speech in which he called "Islam a religion of peace."
"Islam is portrayed in a shocking and unobjective way by a great number of Russian media. Most journalists do not understand the subject they write about," Shevchenko said.
"According to many journalists, a "good Muslim" is someone who does not know Arabic, does not read intellectual Islamic literature, preferably has no political views about the Russian Federation, who goes silently to the mosque and drinks a little bit," he said.
According to Shevchenko, the media have managed to turn the Muslim community of Russia into its enemy.
