Muslims accuse the "Times" program of inciting religious hatred

The National Organization of Russian Muslims (NORM) issued a statement in connection with the airing of the Vremena program on Channel One on November 14. The authors of the statement are outraged that the host Vladimir Pozner, in their opinion, called for ethnic cleansing in European countries in order to expel Muslims from there.

The guests of the program Alexander Ignatenko, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Andranik Migranyan, Leonid Radzikhovsky, Viktor Erofeev and others, also, according to NORM, allowed themselves insulting remarks against Muslims and calls for violence against adherents of Islam.

Taking into account that the program aired on the Feast of Conversation, NORM notes that "on this day, instead of congratulations and benevolent attention to the religion, the followers of which make up a significant part of the country's indigenous inhabitants, the Muslims of Russia were subjected to blasphemous and obviously ritual persecution by the state television of Russia."

NORM accuses Channel One of "direct incitement of national and religious hatred". The reason for this, according to the authors of the statement, is "the absolutely disproportionate influence on the information policy of our country of representatives of the newcomer ethnic group, which is trying to solve the problem of the geopolitical survival of their historical homeland by drawing Russian people into the massacre with the Islamic world. In particular, in this provocative program there was no not only Muslims, but there were almost no Russians, and the general tone of hostility was determined by the Zionist trio Pozner-Zhirinovsky-Radzikhovsky and the Armenian Migranyan who played along with them. The whole statement is sustained in a similar tone.

NORM calls on the country's leadership "to seriously revise the information policy of state television channels regarding Islam and its followers and draw harsh conclusions against the organizers and accomplices of the past provocation, up to the initiation of criminal cases under Article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation "Inciting inter-religious hatred"".

On November 16, at the annual signing ceremony by representatives of religious and public organizations, political parties and authorities of the Saratov region of an agreement on public accord, the head of the Volga Spiritual Muslim Board, Mukaddas Bibarsov, also criticized the Vremena program. According to him, the appearance of "such broadcasts" in which Russian Muslims are subjected to "defamation" prevents the establishment of harmony in society, and therefore potentially threatens the integrity of the state.

Statements by NORM regarding incitement of hatred towards Muslims by ORT TV company

Sources

• The head of the Muslims of the Volga region criticizes the confessional policy of Channel One // Week.ru. 2004. November 18. (With reference to Blagovest-info.)