Former Chechen President Zalemkhan Yanderbayev

By Damir Ahmed, IOL Moscow Correspondent

MOSCOW, October 25 (IslamOnline) – Russian Muslims expressed indignation at the Chechen fighters’ hostage-taking operation in a Moscow theater, as Muslim leaders started efforts to contain the situation and convince the fighters to release their hostages.

Sheikh Nafeulla Ashirov, Mufti of the Central Asian part of Russia, told IslamOnline Thursday, October 24, he would head directly to the Moscow theater to negotiate the release of more than 800 hostages.

Russian Interfax news agency confirmed the arrival of Sheikh Ashirov to the theater.

Meanwhile, Russian Muslims continued to voice their rejection of the Chechen hostage-taking operation.

Gameel Gibadullin, the director of the DUMAS press center, told IslamOnline the unprecedented act in Russian history has caused "extreme concern", especially among Russian Muslims.

Religious leaders in the Republic of Tatarstan have also declared their condemnation of the Chechen fighters’ operation.

Nizhniy Novgorod spiritual leader Umar Idrisov also condemned Thursday the operation in Moscow in an interview with Russian Channel 1 TV.

Earlier, Head of the Council of Muftis of Russia, Sheikh Rafeel Gayndin, told Channel 1 that the Chechen operation will trigger sharp anti Islamic action in all Russian cities.

A group of about 50 Chechens – more than half of them women – stormed the Moscow theater Wednesday, October 23, taking all audience and workers hostage – nearly 1000 mostly Russians and a few foreigners.

Meanwhile, in an interview Thursday with Al-Jazeera satellite channel, former Chechen President Zalemkhan Yanderbayev said – in answer to a query about the gains the Chechen fighters would get by such an operation: “Chechen fighters are trying to fend off Russian state terrorism which started 10 years ago with support from Europe.”

Ten to fifteen thousand Chechen civilians have been killed during the last four years alone, Yanderbayev said, adding that Russian forces sometimes closed off entire neighborhoods and massacred their civilian populations.

Yanderbayev criticized the international community’s silence towards Russian massacres against the Chechen people at the time the Chechen independence fighters are dubbed “terrorists”.

Asked about the possible ending of the hostage crisis, the former Chechen President said: “The scenario I’m thinking of is implementing the Mujahideen’s demands by withdrawing all Russian forces from the Republic of Chechnya.”

The Chechen hostage-takers had demanded that the Russian army withdraw from Chechnya, and threatened to blow up the theater building if their demands were not met.

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