Russian Muslim leader: Learn from the Jews
Russia’s Muslim community should look to Jewish efforts as a model for building ties with the government, a Muslim leader said.
“It seems to me that Russian Muslims would not be sinning to learn something from Russian Jews,” Aminov wrote in the article.
Aminov wrote that while there are nearly 10 times as many Muslims as Jews in Russia, and Muslim leaders in certain Muslim-majority areas hold positions in the Russian Legislature and local governments, that hasn’t stemmed the tide of Islamophobia.
He recommends that Muslims take a page from recent Jewish efforts and form a public chamber to speak to the concerns of his community. Among other things, the chamber seeks to inform the Russian and Israeli media about events in Jewish life in Russia and promotes Jewish values among Russia’s intelligentsia.
Aminov said the Muslim community in Russia needs to shed its passivity and defend its rights by communicating regularly with state leaders.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
