Volume One, Number 24
Friday, December 21, 2001

BIGOTRY MONITOR

A Weekly Human Rights Newsletter on Antisemitism, Xenophobia, and Religious Persecution in the Former Communist World and Western Europe

EDITOR: CHARLES FENYVESI

(News and Editorial Policy within the sole discretion of the editor)

Published by UCSJ: Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union

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PUTIN AND RUSSIAN ORTHODOX LEADERS PROJECT CLASHING VISIONS. For the second time this year, President Vladimir Putin delivered a major ideological statement in the setting of the Russian Orthodox Church. (For the first statement, in Solovki, see Bigotry Monitor #9, August 24: "Putin Redefines the History of Russia and Its Church.") On December 13 in Moscow's restored Cathedral of Christ the Savior, Putin opened the 6th World Russian People's Assembly with a meticulously crafted address less than a minute long, broadcast on ORT television. It began with a reference to "the events of September 11" changing the world and making us "ponder the huge responsibility that we all bear for the future in our efforts to build a democratic, fair, and safe world system." But states alone cannot do the job, he declared, and he stressed the "need for society's unity in its rejection of xenophobia and violence, and of all that feeds the ideology of terrorism." He continued with a stirring call: "We must counter barbarism and the desire to fan a conflict of civilizations and religions with spirituality and tolerance." Finally, he presented his own interpretation of Russian history: "Russia has always been a country of a multitude of unique national cultures and religions. Russia united and unites the peoples of Europe and Asia. It unites Russian Orthodoxy and Islam, Buddhism and Judaism. Precisely this is the source of our homeland's wealth and spiritual strength."

However, the following day during the discussions about Russia's "spiritual security," many participants delivered speeches that went counter to the spirit of Putin's message, according to the Blagovest-Info news agency. They often used the contemptuous term "sect, " a putdown by xenophobic Church and government officials, as well as the Russian media, to describe not only new religious groups they perceive as "dangerous" but also established religions recognized throughout the world. The meeting, attended by about a thousand delegates and presided over by Patriarch Alexiy II of Moscow and All Russia, reached its lowest point with a speech by Nikolai Vikulin. Deputy chairman of the Volgograd branch of the Russian People's Assembly, Vikulin has been forging links between antisemitic elements and "fighters against sects." On this occasion he focused his wrath on Mormons and other members of "a gigantic army of sects" active in Volgograd, whom he accused of practicing Satanism. His speech contained thinly veiled antisemitic references, especially in his attack on the elimination of the ethnicity entry in Russian passports, a requirement that helped to identify vulnerable groups in Soviet times. Because of the new passports, Vikulin claimed, the Russian population will soon become "a herd without birthright and tribe."

Other speeches were no less aggressive in tone, though not antisemitic, according to Blagovest-Info. Vladimir Yegorov, the governor of Kaliningrad Oblast and former admiral of the Baltic Fleet, issued a warning about the rise in the numbers of Catholic and Lutheran believers in his region, as well as his concern over the activities of Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses. He said his administration is taking measures to "stabilize the situation" by working with the Russian Orthodox Church in education, culture, and charitable projects. Yegorov emphasized "the special vulnerability" of his oblast because it is surrounded by non-Russian territory. Bishop Feofan of Magadan and Sinegorsk compared his region to Kaliningrad, as his parishioners also face "a large influx of sects." "In Magadan, there are no fewer of them than there are in Kaliningrad," he said. Their "dominance" in border regions is dangerous for the entire country, he argued, because "the sectarians don't need to penetrate to the center. They can prepare their adepts in the borderlands and then send them to [the central regions of] Russia." First Deputy Speaker of the State Duma Lyubov Sliska called for strong measures against "totalitarian sects" and blamed them for spreading "drug addiction, AIDS, and child pornography." She said that thanks to Russians' "genetic ties" to Orthodoxy, the country is able to fight globalization. The assembly adopted a resolution condemning sects and "immorality in culture."

LOCAL OFFICIALS VIOLATE CITIZENS' RIGHTS, PUTIN SAYS. The fundamental provisions of the Constitution should not be changed, and that goes for extending the term of the head of state, President Putin told an elite audience at a Kremlin reception celebrating Constitution Day, December 12. He addressed himself to the unfinished task of dividing the authority of the federal center and the constituent parts of the Russian Federation. "Key issues related to the spheres of joint responsibility have not been resolved yet," he said, and called these issues "directly linked to the integrity of the state and the guaranteeing of equal rights to all citizens." (In its recent report on Russia, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance found that racism and xenophobia persist at the regional and local levels, far from federal jurisdiction. See Bigotry Monitor #21, November 30.) Putin used strong language in criticizing the bureaucracy, focusing his anger on local bureaucrats: "It is absolutely inadmissible that the absence of a law is often substituted by voluntaristic decisions or even the arbitrariness of officials. It is inadmissible that regional laws, along with municipal and departmental instructions, often violate political, social, and property rights of the citizens."

YABLOKO PARTY STAGES ANTI-RACIST MARCH. St. Petersburg-based supporters of Russia's liberal Yabloko party staged a demonstration to mark Constitution Day and to protest the activities of nationalist organizations that raise the level of interethnic tension, Radio Russia reported on December 13. The demonstrators carried placards with slogans such as "Today pogroms in Moscow -- tomorrow fascists in the Kremlin?" and "For what did our grandfathers fight? What will our grandchildren inherit?"

FORMER SOVIET JEWS BACK WAR ON TERRORISTS IN ISRAEL, CHECHNYA, AFGHANISTAN. An international conference of Jews originally from the Soviet Union that ended its meeting in Moscow on December 19 urged the UN and other international organizations "to raise their voices in defense of the right of the State of Israel to defend itself" and to "render assistance to democratic countries in the struggle against international terrorism," according to Interfax. The group's resolution noted that former Soviet Jews "react with indignation to the acts of terror in the USA and Israel and extremists' actions in Chechnya, other Russian Federation territories and CIS states." The statement called for a common approach to the struggle against terrorism and the rejection of double standards, declaring that "there is no difference between terrorists in Chechnya, Israel, the U.S. or Afghanistan."

KURSK JEWISH CENTER VANDALIZED. The pre-revolutionary pogromist slogan "Beat the kikes-Save Russia!" was daubed on the walls of the Chesed Barukh Jewish Center in Kursk on the night of December 9, according to the web site of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia. The director of the Center, Igor Bukhman, asked the police to investigate.

NEO-NAZIS BANNED IN MOSCOW SPREAD LEAFLETS TO RECRUIT MEMBERS. Leaflets urging people to join the violent neo-Nazi group Russian National Unity (RNU) have appeared in the Moscow subway system, according to UCSJ's Moscow Bureau chief Aleksandr Brod. Though the RNU is banned in Moscow, the leaflets print a postal address and a telephone number for those wishing to sign up.

CRIMEAN PAPER CHARGED WITH INCITEMENT OF ETHNIC HATRED. In Ukraine's autonomous region of Crimea, the Prosecutor's Office has launched a criminal case against the newspaper "Russky Krym" on charges of inciting ethnic hatred, prosecutor Aleksandr Dobroriz announced on December 6. He said that the Simferopol newspaper published material of an antisemitic nature and therefore the autonomy's Prosecutor's Office will demand that it be closed down. According to Radio Svaboda's web site, this is the first criminal case in the Crimea against a newspaper, to say nothing of a case based on incitement of ethnic hatred. While the Republican Committee on Information of the Crimea had suggested the lawsuit earlier, the web site reported, the decisive word came from Jewish leaders, including the Deputy Chairman of the Crimean Supreme Rada (parliament) Boris Deych. A complicating factor is that the newspaper's publisher is the Russian Movement of the Crimea (RDK), now preparing to take part in parliamentary elections. The offensive article was by an anonymous author. According to UCSJ's Kyiv monitor Maxim Baryshnikov, because the Ukrainian Criminal Code allows criminal cases to be brought against people, but not "juridical persons" like newspapers, the case will probably be based on Article 161 that bans "violations of the equality of citizens based on their racial or ethnic identity or their attitude towards religion." Those found responsible for violating this law face up to five years in prison and/or a fine of up to 50 monthly minimum wage salaries.

LUKASHENKO URGES ORTHODOX CHURCH TO JOIN STATE IN BLOCKING "SECTS." The church and the state can and must cooperate, at least in "raising a barrier to pseudo-religions and destructive sects that are having a harmful effect on the public," President Alexander Lukashenko told the patriarchal exarch, Metropolitan Filaret of Minsk and Slutsk, and members of the Holy Synod of the Belarusian Orthodox Church in Minsk on December 18. According to the Russian news agency Interfax, Lukashenko said that "relations between the church and the state are evolving into relations between partners." In his response, Metropolitan Filaret thanked Lukashenko for constructive cooperation with the Orthodox Church, urged the adoption of a new law on freedom of conscience as soon as possible, and suggested that relations between the church and the educational system be put on a legal footing.

RELIGIOUS SITES TARGETED IN MACEDONIA. At least 30 religious sites, including churches and mosques, have been destroyed in Macedonia over the last three months, according to Keston News Service.

PRAGUE COURT REJECTS UZBEK EXTRADITION REQUEST. On December 14 a Czech court ruled against the extradition of Uzbek dissident Mohammad Solih to Tashkent, according to news agency reports. Prague's municipal court cited the international outcry following Solih's arrest on an Interpol warrant in November and questioned if the poet and human rights activist would receive a fair trial in Uzbekistan.

NEW KAZAKH RELIGION LAW PRESENTED WITHOUT CONSULTING THE PUBLIC. A new draft religion law was presented to the Kazakh Parliament without public consultation, a mainly Protestant group, the Association of Religious Organizations of Kazakhstan (AROK), complained in a letter received by Keston News Service. AROK called the draft "the government's latest attempt to force Parliament to adopt a law that would encroach upon religious rights and freedoms in our country." "We were unpleasantly surprised that the draft law was presented to Parliament without initial public consultation," said Birgit Kainz, human rights specialist at the OSCE bureau in Almaty. Commenting on the latest draft, the head of the Almaty Helsinki Group said: "The authorities are making no secret of the fact that they intend to intensify the controls on believers. In the preamble to the draft law it is stated clearly that it is meant to limit the expansion of 'non-traditional' religious groups in Kazakhstan."

* * * QUOTE OF THE WEEK * * * "Everyone is tired of this war," writes Anna Politovskaya, in her recently published book "A Dirty War: A Russian Reporter in Chechnya," a first-person account of her experiences covering that war as a correspondent for the Russian weekly "Novaya Gazeta." "When you tell even very close friends and relatives on your return about that other world, you are met with disbelief . . . 'There she goes again, making up these hellish stories.' "

THE EDUCATION OF A FANATIC
Russian Writer Profiles a Muslim Fundamentalist Leader Based in Moscow

German Nazism and Russian extremism may have influenced Muslim fundamentalist Heydar Jemal as much as his contacts with Arab and Iranian intellectuals and activists, writer Mark Deych suggests in his article on December 7 in "Moskovsky Komsomolets," a highly popular Russian daily. The acerbic Deych pulls no punches in profiling Jemal, a well-educated, well-connected, and increasingly well-known Muslim spokesman in Moscow, now chairman of a group that calls itself the Islamic Committee. But the most damning parts of the article are direct quotes from Jemal.

Deych begins with an anecdote. Some years ago in the Mayakovsky Museum a neo-Nazi group introduced a new journal, and the presentation was by a man of distinctly Aryan appearance wearing an armband with a stylized swastika. Another speaker was a young man with the nickname "Goebbels." "Our way," he intoned, "is that of radical revolution. Our allies are primarily the Islamic fundamentalists engaged in a desperate struggle against the Great Satan." Sitting next to "Goebbels" was just such an "ally" who rose and spoke: "We shall move to the forefront of Russian politics and conduct a dialogue from a position of strength. Mujahedin, who will force the world to deal with them, will take their seats in the government of Russia."

That "ally" was Heydar Jemal. "In a sense, he has been proven right," Deych writes. "True, there are no mujahedin in the government of Russia as yet. But the 'dialogue from a position of strength' is already taking place; it has induced a shudder in the whole world. Not the least place in this 'dialogue,' as Jemal means it, is assigned to Russia."

Deych presents Jemal's bio. He is 54, born in Azerbaijan, and has long lived in Moscow. He taught in the Arabic Department in the Oriental Languages Institute at Moscow State University. Charged with "bourgeois nationalism," he was forced to leave the institute. He then earned his living as a tutor, moved in dissident circles, and got involved in "black samizdat." "Mention has to be made of certain oddities that were manifested even then," Deych notes: Jemal's proximity to dissident circles and to samizdat had not the least effect on his material circumstances -- which is a bit unusual. Even stranger is that the young man, accused by Soviet power of "bourgeois nationalism," had unrestricted access to the special sections of Moscow libraries, where he studied the works of the "new right" that current Russian neo-Nazis revere. "There's something here," Deych suggests, "that does not add up."

Toward the end of the 1980s Jemal joined Pamyat. He explains that he had to "sound out contacts with Russian national patriots." Deych quotes Pamyat leader Dmitry Vasilev recalling that Jemal conducted a seminar for Pamyat rank and file. Attending one session, Vasilev was "horrified" to find that Jemal's thoughts echoed national socialism. So, Jemal was "exposed and expelled."

Jemal has a different explanation. He denounces Pamyat as "a child of the KGB." According to Deych, "the question is still debated. There is, though, a question, the answer to which has long been known: Who cries 'Stop Thief' the loudest?" Deych adds: "Several years later, talking about the Pamyat period of his life, Mr. Jemal said: 'I am an agent.' No, not of the KGB. An 'agent of Islam.'"

In the 1990s, Jemal traveled a lot, mainly in the Middle East. He became the Moscow representative of the World Assembly of the House of the Prophets, an international Shi'ite organization. According to Deych, he acquired strong ties to fundamentalist leaders, as well as big money. He had funds to run for two years an Islamic religious program on Channel 1, described by Deych as "exulting in the Islamic revolution of Ayatollah Khomeini and cursing American imperialists." In the mid-1990s, Jemal joined another group, the Islamic-Arab People's Conference that held its meetings in Sudan, then the world center of international terrorism.

Jemal quotes what he claims is the Koran: "'Thou shalt not kill' except in two instances -- self-defense and execution for a crime." But experts counter that the Koran does not mention killing in self-defense; nor does it say anything about "execution for a crime." When the Koran speaks of punishment by death, it is for premeditated murder. Jemal's interpretation of self-defense is very broad: "Islam is a civilization established by God, which has to defend itself against the pagan barbarity of the West." That sounds familiar to Deych, and he quotes the Nazi slogan "Gott mit uns!" as the source.

To Jemal, "it's perfectly obvious" that the United States started the war against Islam. "Arguments are powerless," Deych writes. He tried to tell Jemal that "the war is against terrorists whatever they call themselves - Communists or Red Brigades or Muslim Brotherhood." But, Deych concludes: "Fundamentalists of any creed are impervious to arguments." Jemal says that it will soon become clear that the September 11attacks were planned and carried out by "fascist-minded elements in the U.S. administration," "oligarchical circles," the CIA, and Israel's special services. Deych notes that Russia's Communist leaders have said the same, in almost identical words, as "fundamentalists of Communism and Islam have merged in ecstasy." What about the crowds in some Arab countries celebrating the carnage in the U.S.? "This is the natural reaction of the street to the humiliation of Islam," is Jemal's response. He calls Taliban "a symbol of Islamic civilization." He fully endorses the demolition of Buddhist monuments.

Deych is right: "Debating with Mr. Jemal is like spitting into the wind."

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