18:00, 2 June 2009

Muftis of North Caucasus may cancel trip to Egypt

A sitting of the North Caucasus Moslems Coordination Council is due to be held one these days to take a decision on the possible exclusion of the Egyptian capital from the coming Middle East tour of the North Caucasus spiritual leaders. This has been announced by Ismail-Khadji Berdiyev, chair of the Clerical Department of Moslems in Karachai-Cherkess and Stavropol krai.

For reference, late in May the Egyptian authorities conducted a special operation in the course of which 198 Russian citizens were arrested, 73 of whom come from Chechnya, 12 from Ingushetia and 10 from Dagestan.

"We are indignant at what has happened in Egypt. After all these clean-ups by the police of that country when the innocent guys were put to prison, most of them being from the Caucasus, we have officially informed the Egyptian authorities that such acts run counter to Shariat norms. Naturally, the trip of Muftis to Cairo is now uncertain. A meeting of the Coordination Council is going to be held in a few days to make a final decision", stated Ismail-Khadji Berdiyev in his interview to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Author: Alexander Zhukov

Source: CK correspondent