{"id":1271,"date":"2005-12-09T08:09:55","date_gmt":"2005-12-09T12:09:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/?p=1271"},"modified":"2005-12-09T08:10:19","modified_gmt":"2005-12-09T12:10:19","slug":"russia%e2%80%99s-muslims-want-christian-symbols-removed-from-coat-of-arms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/2005\/12\/russia%e2%80%99s-muslims-want-christian-symbols-removed-from-coat-of-arms\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia\u2019s Muslims Want Christian Symbols Removed From Coat of Arms"},"content":{"rendered":"

Moscow News<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span>A group of top Muslim clerics have demanded that Orthodox Christian symbols be removed from the Russian coat of arms and have complained about the Russian authorities and power-wielding structures allegedly refusing to abide by the principle of secularity, the Interfax news agency reported.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not only a question of the Russian coat of arms. We can say that icons are all but put up on the walls of state offices,\u201d Nafigulla Ashirov, chairman of the Spiritual Board of Muslims of Asian Russia, told journalists.
\n
\nHe accused units of the Defense and Interior Ministries and the Federal Security Service of appropriating various saints \u201cwho are allegedly the patrons of warriors\u201d. \u201cThe power-wielding structures, the authorities and the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchy are erecting large crosses at border posts and the approaches to towns. Orthodox chapels are being built in the command bodies of the armed forces,\u201d he lamented.<\/p>\n

In his turn, Damir Mukhetdinov, deputy head of the Spiritual Board of the Nizhny Novgorod region\u2019s Muslims, shared the Muslims\u2019 concerns. Their feelings are insulted by the Orthodox presence in the Russian coat of arms.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe, the Muslims of Nizhny Novgorod region, were wholeheartedly in favour of introducing the unity of the peoples holiday. We could not have imagined, however, that the sound of Orthodox bells and the icon of the Virgin of Kazan would become the symbols of this holiday in Russia,\u201d he said about the day of people\u2019s unity. The mufti is convinced that \u201call this violates the secular nature of the state and doesn\u2019t contribute to the unity of Russia\u2019s peoples\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ali Visam Bardvil, head of the Spiritual Board of Karelia\u2019s Muslims, too, believes that the presence of Christian symbols in the coat of arms is impermissible. He said that Russia \u201cis neither a Muslim nor a Christian country\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cross is not a Muslim symbol. We respect the religious feeling of Christians but do not recognize the crucifixion of Christ,\u201d the Muslim figure clarified. \u201cTherefore,\u201d he went on, \u201cin my opinion Orthodox symbols should be removed from the coat of arms to make it acceptable to all religions.\u201d Bardvil emphasized that Muslims would support all politicians calling for a change to the current symbols in the Russian coat of arms. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Moscow News A group of top Muslim clerics have demanded that Orthodox Christian symbols be removed from the Russian coat of arms and have complained about the Russian authorities and power-wielding structures allegedly refusing to abide by the principle of secularity, the Interfax news agency reported. \u201cThis is not only a question of the Russian … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1319,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1319"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1271\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}