Chechnya Ignored As Khatami Praises Religious Tolerance In Russia
MOSCOW, March 13 (News Agencies) - Iranian President Mohammad Khatami praised religious tolerance in Russia Tuesday in a speech to Muslims here that made no reference to Moscow's 17-month war against Islamic separatists in Chechnya.
"I want to thank the Russian government for respecting the various religions that exist," he said after attending prayers with the mufti Ravil Gaynutdin and around 300 fellow worshippers at Moscow's central mosque.
But there was confusion over remarks Khatami made earlier Tuesday in a speech at Russia's Institute of International Relations.
Russian translators there quoted him as denouncing the "Judaism which uprooted half a million Palestinians" in the Middle East.
But official sources in Tehran later sought to clarify his comments saying he criticized the "Judaization" of Palestine and Zionism, but not Judaism as a religion in its own right.
Tehran said that Khatami attacked "the Judaization that has driven a million Palestinians from their homes," according to the text of the speech, and not "Judaism" per se, as was quoted in the Russian translation given to the press.
He also put into question "a so-called Western civilization which protects the actions" of Israel and Zionism, an ideology which fights Iran, the same source said.
At the mosque, the Iranian leader acknowledged that Russians had suffered "difficulties in the last century, not only Muslims but people of other faiths as well," a reference to the state atheism that prevailed during the Soviet era.
Referring to President Vladimir Putin's statement on Monday that Moscow planned to step up arms sales to Iran in defiance of U.S. criticism, Khatami commented: "We Muslims have to try to develop our countries so that we do not have to rely or be subordinate to anyone."
But his speech contained no reference to Russia's intervention in the predominantly Muslim republic of Chechnya, where a second military intervention in five years has left more than 10,000 Chechen separatists dead, according to official figures.
After the speech, Khatami held a brief meeting with Gaynutdin. On Monday he held talks with the Russian Orthodox patriarch Alexy II.
