Experts associate desecration of Moscow mosque with terror act in Paris

The desecration of the Memorial Mosque on Poklonnaya Hill in Moscow was provoked by the attack on the edition office of the "Charlie Hebdo" in Paris and the events surrounding the terror act. This opinion has been expressed by experts Orkhan Djemal, Andrei Zubov, and Lev Levinson interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

The message reporting on the desecration of the mosque in Moscow was received by the SMS-service of the "Caucasian Knot". Mosque-goers found insulting drawings and inscriptions on the mosque's walls.

According to Orkhan Djemal, a "Forbes" journalist, the incident is directly related to the events in France. The journalist believes the reason lies in the desire to destabilize the situation in Moscow.

According to him, the terror act in Paris pushed the Moscow nationalist groupings to take decisive actions.

Andrei Zubov, the General Director of the Centre of "The Church and International Relations" at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (known as MGIMO), the leading researcher at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), believes that in general, the Russian society has got no Islamophobia. According to the expert, only some marginal groups, members of which "can hardly be called orthodox" tend to express Islamophobia.

Lev Levinson, a member of the Advisory Board of the Russian Ombudsman, believes that first of all, the incident with the mosque on Poklonnaya Hill includes the criminal component. However, the expert also associates the incident with the terror act in Paris.

According to Lev Levinson, the desecration of the mosque may be an attempt to attack the culture and religious feelings; however, everyone should wait for the conclusions of the investigation.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.