Gainutdin said the book has been based on mere rumors, gossip and the writer's own inventions.

MOSCOW, December 2, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Russian Muslims have denounced a new book on the recent history of the Muslim minority, with the Muslim umbrella body threatening to withdraw from the Russia's Inter-religious Council in protest to the publication.

The book, A Recent History of the Russian Islamic Community, by Roman Siantyev, executive secretary of the Inter-religious Council, claimed between 500,000 and one million "radical" Muslims are living in the Russian Federation.

It added that those Muslims call for the physical destruction of all those who disagree with them and for the overthrow of the existing system by force.

"Silantyev's book is, in our view, a powerful factor of destabilization, intolerance and lack of respect for leaders of traditional Islam in Russia," said the Russian Council of Muftis Thursday, December 1, according to the Russian news agency Intefax.

Rival Gainutdin, the council's head, said the book has been based on mere rumors, gossip and the writer's own inventions.

He stressed that "the publication was an attempt to blacken the clergy and leaders of nearly all religious centers of traditional Russian Islam."

Russia has a Muslim population of 20 million people concentrated in north of the Caucasus and in the central parts of the country.

The Council of Muftis has called for an urgent meeting of the Inter-religious Council to appraise the book and examine "the official position of the Russian Orthodox Church on the Muslim minority".

The council said it expected to hear "a moral assessment of the book from the members of the Council's presidium and from the entire Russian Inter-religious Council."

"We may suspend our membership or leave the Russian Inter-Religious Council following the publication of this book," Gainutdin said.

But the North Caucasus Muslim Coordinating Center said it would be wrong for the Council of Muftis to leave the Inter-religious Council.

"It would not be a serious move for the Council of Muftis to withdraw from the Inter-religious Council, Magomed Albogachiyev, the Center's first deputy chairman told Interfax.

"On the contrary, we should all get together in the Inter-religious Council and discuss all the complaints with the Russian Muftis Council and resolve the disputes," he added.

He stressed that the council stands "for stronger cooperation with the Inter-religious Council, primarily between Orthodox Christians and Muslims.

Russian Muslims have been facing increasingly racist and violent attacks ranging from raping and body assaults to attacks on mosques, especially in the wake of the bloody end to the Beslan school crisis in September.

On September 16,2004, a Muslim woman was found in a remote area in the eastern city of Asbest raped and tortured to death.

Russian Muslims have repeatedly complained about social persecution and official ignorance despite their relatively high number.

A leading human rights group accused the Russian authorities of carrying out a campaign of pursuit against Russian Muslims, under the guise of fighting terrorism.