By Atef Moatamid, IOL Staff

MOSCOW, April 14 (IslamOnline.net) - The Russian Islamic Fatwa Council has declared late Monday, April 14, as invalid the fatwa issued by Mufti Talaat Tagil Din on April 3, regarding the necessity of Russian Muslims’ Jihad against the U.S.

The Council has refused to keep Talaat Tagil Din in charge of any Islamic organization in the country, according to the Russian Interfax News Agency.

The legal committee affiliated to the Russia’s Mufti Council has deemed the “emotional” declaration of Jihad by a high ranking religious official like Talaat Tagil Din a major sin that could have brought about disasters and indulged Russia in a third world war.

On its website, Izfetsia newspaper has covered the event, pointing out that the charges against Tagil Din, according to the spokesman of the Russian Fatwa Council, is partially related to what he said in his Fatwa to the effect that his “lips utter the words of Allah whose orders come out through his tongue.”

The committee that deprived Tagil Din of his religious tasks considered such words as unbecoming for the Mufti who likened himself to prophets.

The decision that deprived Tagil Din of any official tasks in Russian Islamic organizations has also included preventing him from officially performing the role of Imam in Muslim prayers, according to Izfetsia.

U.S. Behind Russian Change Of Attitude

Reviewing the reactions of Muslim religious people in Russia during the Iraq war, we can mark three consecutive and simultaneously different scenes:

First scene is since the eruption of war up to April 3; a period during which demonstrations were intensively held in Moscow and several Russian cities to condemn the war on Iraq.

Such demonstrations included Muslims and Christians alike and were approved by the country that denounced war and allowed its people to declare their hatred to the U.S. in broad day light.

By the end of those two weeks, Talaat Tagil Din headed thousands of Muslim demonstrators on April 3 in downtown Russia, holding a sword in his right hand to declare Jihad against the U.S. and encourage Russian Muslims to save Iraq.

Such demonstrations were held upon the consent of the country with only little objection on the part of Tagil Din’s rivals in other Islamic organizations.

Second scene started with Tagil Din’s declaration of Jihad up to the fall of Baghdad on April 9. During that period, Russia witnessed several cultural discussions published by the papers and media.

Such discussions centered on the negative effects of the declaration of Gihad on the Russia-U.S. ties and the shock that influenced some Russian intellectuals regarding Tagil Din, whom they considered the most moderate Islamic cadres.

Third scene has included the period between the fall of Baghdad up to April 14. During this period, things have been arranged by the U.S. and Russia. There should have been goodwill after the British troops declared on April 12, 2003, that they had found Chechen volunteers in Iraq.

Jihad In Iraq Or Russia?

It seems that the decision taken against Tagil Din has not only intended to prove goodwill for the U.S. but there is another dimension as well; namely, the geographic extent that should be followed by any fatwa against the U.S. occupation of Iraq.

Jihad against the Americans could be invested against the Russian government in several Islamic regions in Russia, where around 22 million Muslims live.