Kharis Saubyanov, the Vice-Chairman of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the European part of Russia, Deputy Chairman of the Council of Muftis of Russia:
"The problem is the following: some extremist forces are trying to undermine Russia from inside. After all, the only multinational country in the world with more than 100 nationalities, which did not have any inter-religious or inter-ethnic violence for centuries, certainly annoys the West. Look at the countries where a civil state has been proclaimed. We declare that Russia is a multinational state. We protect this capital, we are trying to save it. Some people are not interested in it, some are disturbed by it and try to simply demolish its essence. The same concerns external forces abroad that are trying to somehow blackmail Russia.
For instance, completely unprecedented attacks in connection with same-sex marriages, due to adoption of laws against propaganda among minors. And right away the West sends a message: ok, it is discrimination of people, we are boycotting the Olympic Games, Russia does not recognize human rights. No. They simply do not take it as a basis and do not bother to pick up the law and read it carefully. This law does not state that we do not allow gay athletes to take part in competitions, in the Games, in the Olympics. No. We are not at all interested in who sleeps with whom, where and how, and who follows what. This is the business of every athlete, of every citizen. What are we primarily concerned with? WIth the future of our country, the future of our fatherland. These are our children.
And, of course, we, the representatives of the Muslim community, we have talked a lot about this issue at the inter-religious council, about how we must protect our homeland, our future. We must protect our national unity. The blackmail "we will come - we will not come" already took place at the Moscow Olympic Games of 1980. Some remember it, some don't - I remember this time. I was at these Olympic Games, stared at the empty Luzhniki Stadium, where the U.S. delegation was supposed to arrive. So what? Well, the U.S. delegation did not arrive. Was it someone's loss? Of Russia? The Olympic Games were not held? No, they were held. They demonstrated the greatness and power of our sports community, their achievements, and so on. The delegation of U.S. athletes remained unaccounted and completely unrecognized. And they suffered from this. And now one should not pressure Russia, talk to it from a position of strength. It has the strength and the ability to give the necessary response and counter it.
I want to say that, indeed, our inter-religious council, when we gather, when we communicate with each other, when we talked and in particular took statements on same-sex marriages, we had the unanimous opinion that our traditional religious, historical and national values in no way accept that. What is acceptable to the West is the business of the West. They have their own home, we have our own home. They have their own traditions, some are new, some have re-appeared, we have our own centuries-old traditions. These are traditions that representatives of all faiths and all nationalities cherish, they are the core, strength and might of our unified state.
I think that the events that occurred in Biryulyovo... One cannot say that there there was an ethnic conflict or something like that. First of all, a socio-economic event took place there, an aspect of the socio-economic field, where ownership and infrastructure management issues of Western Biryulyovo collided, issues of the deafness of local regional authorities to the requests of the local population in connection with the fact that for decades, for years there was no infrastructure, social development, entertainment places, recreation areas, there was nothing. This is a small industrial enclave. And the local authorities have always been deaf to the requests. I know about it because my eldest daughter lived in the area. I have first-hand information about how she was afraid, how we accompanied her after classes, etc. She simply had to leave the area, because as she was saying: "Dad, I cannot. I'm afraid." Is there at least a single working cinema in Biryulyovo today, sports grounds, stadiums? This does not exist. And the owners of the vegetable depot could have invested their profits, after all 20% of the total vegetable production delivered to Moscow was concentrated there, since they work there, invite people, they could have somehow refined the infrastructure, taken some care of the population. After all, look: not a single local resident worked there, at this vegetable depot, with the exception of a few people. Of course, they have been primarily fighting for profit, it is clear. The inter-ethnic aspect... You understand perfectly, there was a provocateur, Azef, there were others who were provoking people from inside. There was a great deal of provocation, of course. And this was a provocative element, nationalistic, terribly nationalistic... When a man, when one or another nation is trying to show the good side, the positive side of the nation, to show its interaction with other nationalities, to show its cultural aspect - this is one thing. And when a man tries to say "yes, we are better than you, you are white, we are black" it is a very basic, extreme nationalism, these are Black Hundreds in the most disgusting sense of the word. And the fact that a provocation happened there is unquestionable. I will repeat once again that throughout its history Russia has lived through many types of disasters, many different situations. But, of course, it always came out as the winner and defended its independence and national unity and inter-ethnic brotherhood, and so on.
We now have to really unite as a society together with local authorities first of all. They must listen to what the population demands and asks for, not be deaf to it, to be attentive to it and, of course, fulfil the orders... There is a paradox. The regional, local authorities do not hear, do not want to hear the mandates of the central government, what it says and declares. It turns out that the central government and the local, regional authorities are on their own. It should not be like this. Our society should be united".
