Source: Interfax-Religion
Moscow, October 19, 2015
Jihad of the so-called Islamic State against Russia is doomed to failure as Moscow's motivation for war in the Middle East is stronger than Islamists' reasons, the Russian Orthodox Church official believes.
As was reported, representative of the Islamic State, which is banned in Russia, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani urged Muslims all over the world to join the jihad against Russians and Americans, citing the statement of the head of the Synodal Department for Church and Society Relations Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin that Russia's actions in Syria are a holy struggle.
"It is not the first time that someone has decalred jihad against Russia, but victory is always ours," Father Vsevolod told Interfax-Religion commenting the extremist call.
The priest stressed that "Russia doesn't consider it (operation in Syria - IF) a religious war" as "many Muslims are on our side" and expressed hope that response to Vladimir Putun's and Nursultan Nazarbayev's initiative to call a forum Islam Against Terrorism will reflect that.
"But to struggle against terror today we need supreme motivation - spiritual and moral, based on the ideas of true peace, which is just peace. And we have it. We are motivated better than the allies of the pseudo-Islamic extremism," the church official believes.
Our motivation, he further said, lies in the foundation of both Orthodox Christian and traditional Islamic teaching. "We have to protect the oppressed, the exiled, our brothers and sisters subjected to genocide. This motivation is much stronger than the western struggle 'for democracy and market,' than the pseudoreligious reflections of the extremists," he said.
He also said that some defeatists and pacifists in Russia stand against the anti-terrorist struggle. "They can't speak on behalf of true Christianity and I think true Islam as well. They don't think about truth, but only about preserving their everyday comfort, their miserable lives in rose-colored spectacles," Father Vsevolod believes.
"However, the threatening course of history doesn't leave them any chance. It is impossible to go on eating hamburgers and not to think about anything at all as it was impossible to drink German beer in 1942. The mobilization of people's wills becomes a powerful reality. It is impossible to stop it either in blogs or in offices," the priest said.
