Russia detains 140 on suspicion of misunderstanding Islam

Putin defends the Soviet-era intelligence service to this day. In recent comments to a writers' group in Moscow, he even seemed to excuse its role in dictator Joseph Stalin's brutal purges, saying it would be "insincere" for him to assail the agency where he worked for so many years. Fiercely patriotic, Putin once said he could not read a book by a Soviet defector because "I don't read books by people who have betrayed the Motherland."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/russiagov/putin.htm


We're constantly told, including by the VOA itself, from which comes the report below, that the Islam represented by people like Osama bin Laden, Anwar al-Awlaki and Tamerlan Tsarnaev is a misunderstanding of the true Religion of Peace. Yet this misunderstanding of Islam seems to be shockingly widespread among Muslims. How is it that so many Muslims, often including Muslim clerics, misunderstand their peaceful religion in exactly the same way? Why don't mosques and Islamic schools have any programs to teach Muslims to understand Islam properly and avoid this omnipresent misunderstanding?
"Russia Detains 140 Suspected Islamic Extremists," from VOA News, April 27:

Russian authorities have detained 140 people suspected of ties to Islamic extremism at a mosque in Moscow.

Russian state media quoted a Russian Federal Security Service statement as saying those detained Friday included more than 30 citizens of other countries. But the statement did not specify which nations.

The detentions reportedly involve people suspected of involvement with extremist groups. Russia's Interfax news agency says the operation was aimed at identifying people wanted for terrorist and extremist crimes.

Interfax reports the FSB statement said law enforcement officials believe the prayer house in southern Moscow where the detentions occurred was often visited by people who later converted to radicalism, joined militant groups in the North Caucasus and participated in terrorist acts in Russia.

Media reports did not say whether any charges have been filed.

The detentions come after two ethnically Chechen brothers were identified by U.S. authorities as suspects in the deadly April 15 Boston Marathon bombings.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has used the bombings in Boston as an opportunity to call for greater cooperation with the United States in fighting terrorism.
He said Thursday the attack proved that his policy on the restive North Caucasus region was correct and the West was wrong, as he put it, in supporting the militants in Chechnya....

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2013/04/russia-detains-140-on-suspicion-of-misunderstanding-islam.html