Prosecutor's Office checks statements of North-Ossetian Mufti for presence of extremism

The Prosecutor's Office of North Ossetia now checks the statements made by Ali-Hadji Evteev, Mufti of the republic, in his interview for the presence of extremism: he said that he approves the jihad, and that the ideologists of North-Caucasian separatists were his teachers.

Let us note here that Ali Evteev holds the post of the spiritual leader of Moslems of North Ossetia since January 2008. Right after his election he said that his main work would be towards education in the area of Islam and cooperation with everyone who works towards the same.

As reported by Alina Tsorieva, the spokesperson of the Republic's Prosecutor's Office, experts will assess the text of the Mufti's statements. In his interview dated May 2, 2010, which was published by the IA "Regnum", Mr Evteev confessed, in particular, that he "was very radical" and "went to take lessons from Khattab."

He also said that his teachers were ideologists of North-Caucasian separatists Anzor Astemirov and Musa Mukozhev; and he used to go to see them in Kabardino-Balkaria.

Also, the claims of the Prosecutor's Office were caused by the Imam's recognition of jihad: "Jihad is a part of our religion, it has 14 steps; one of them is armed jihad, but we recognize it either... Moreover, we are convinced that it is the truest way to win one's unending bliss." Also, according to the Mufti, he "sleeps and dreams about Moslems who live in an Islamic state. I'll make everything to make this dream come true."

In his interview the Imam stated that the youth should be talked to not from the stand of bureaucrats or power agents, "who, say, in Dagestan, have short talk: ask a couple of questions - and that's all - a Wahhabite."

"We know who is a Wahhabite and who is not. We know what a Moslem should look like, what his belief should be; and we try to lead people to it. I might keep silent, if I see that a person returned from the forest, and he's normal and repented. He may be helpful, not when we just shoot him dead, and confirm another time our enmity to Islam, to everyone who sits in the forest, and to those with whom these 'forest brothers' communicate by the Internet and mobile phones," the Imam has noted.

Arthur Ahmetkhanov, head of the MIA of North Ossetia, who sent his request to the Prosecutor's Office concerning the text of Evteev's article, emphasized that first of all it should be found out whether the text of the journalist corresponds to what the Mufti had really said, the ITAR-TASS reports.

In her turn, journalist Yana Amelina, who interviewed the Mufti, placed its audio record in the Internet.