Speech by the spiritual leader of the Muslims of Russia, Chairman of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the Russian Federation and the Council of Muftis of Russia, Mufti Sheikh Ravil Gainutdin at the plenary session of the Strategic Vision Group "Russia - Islamic World":

Your Excellency the National Leader of the Turkmen people, Chairman of the Khalk Maslakhaty of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Myalikgulyevich Berdimuhamedov!

Dear Mr. Marat Shakirzyanovich, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation!

Deeply respected Chairman of the Strategic Vision Group "Russia - Islamic World", Rustam Nurgaleevich Rais of the Republic of Tatarstan!

Honorable Brothers Muftis!

Dear participants and guests of the meeting!

Peace be upon you, the mercy of Almighty Allah and His blessing!

Today, by the infinite mercy of the Creator, we have gathered again in the capital of Tatarstan to discuss ways of strengthening cooperation between our multinational and multi-confessional country and the countries of the Arab-Muslim world.
Visitors to Kazan are always struck by the close proximity of mosques and Christian Orthodox churches, synagogues, Old Believers, Catholic and Protestant churches on the streets of Kazan. This creates a special atmosphere of inter-confessional peace in Tatarstan and sets a high bar of friendship between representatives of different religions and ethnicities for the whole multinational Russian Federation. And we, the founders and initiators of the Strategic Vision Group "Russia - Islamic World", would very much like this example to be borrowed in different countries of the world.

In practice, unfortunately, we see how far politicians in some countries of the world are from peacefulness and how crazy they are in their aspirations to destroy inter-confessional peace not only in their countries, but also in entire regions of the planet. We are talking about the Middle East, and more specifically, the long-suffering land of Palestine. This land is holy, sacred for representatives of different world religions. Politicians and public figures have many times proposed various options for resolving the conflict.

But we see that today in Israel the party of war is in power, which systematically carries out genocidal actions against the Palestinian people. Various States, including the Russian Federation and the countries of the Islamic world, are trying to stop the total annihilation of an entire people. As recently as May 10 this year, the UN General Assembly expanded Palestine's rights in this international organization and proposed for a second time that the Security Council positively consider Palestine's full membership in the UN. The resolution was adopted by the votes of 143 countries. And we know who exactly in the Security Council vetoes such decisions, who exactly arrogantly blocks the opinion of dozens and hundreds of countries of the world.

Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and other countries of the Middle East region have always been famous for their inter-confessional harmony: representatives of different trends and currents of Islam, Christianity, Judaism for centuries have found common points of contact, in general, lived peacefully and glorified the Lord of the worlds in their temples, mosques and synagogues.
The balance between the religions was broken only as a result of purposeful policy of the Western countries, be it France in the 19th century, Great Britain in the 20th century, USA and Israel in our days. The peoples of the region will still be able to find a way out of the problematic situation if the arrogant politicians of the West do not provoke more and more new rounds of conflict here.

The Russian Federation has never pursued a colonial policy in the Middle East, has never pitted peoples against each other, has never tried to squeeze all resources out of these territories for nothing. Moscow invites the leaders of the Middle Eastern states at various levels to jointly oppose provocations so that long-awaited peace and security can prevail in the region.
In one of his speeches, Russian President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, laying the foundations for the conceptual rejection of the depersonalization of humanity and the return to the era of colonialism in a new guise, noted: "Russia cherishes friendly ties with Muslim countries, highly appreciates their desire to pursue an independent foreign policy, to increase their role in international affairs".

We are witnessing that all new world and regional capitals are ready to raise their voices and declare themselves as new poles of the new multipolar world order. It is gratifying that the states of the Islamic world play a special role among such countries. 

The Russian leadership and multinational Russian society, realizing the principles of mutual respect and equal opportunities, respecting the right of Islamic countries to follow their own path of development, are consistently building bridges connecting our countries and peoples. The development of major infrastructure projects of great importance in the political and economic dimension, such as the North-South international transport corridor, which plays a key role in strengthening the Greater Eurasian Partnership, the inclusion of new members in the BRICS organization, the large-scale establishment of the halal industry and Islamic financial institutions in Russia, confirms the interest of our state in establishing mutually beneficial, not one-sided, as Western countries have done and continue to do, cooperation with many Islamic countries. And today this mutually beneficial cooperation can develop under qualitatively new conditions, including those that take into account the principles of our religion.

In conclusion, I would like to express to you special gratitude on behalf of Russian Muslims to our foreign guests for the fact that you, following the Divine commandments about justice and cooperation in goodness and piety, not only continue but also strengthen our contacts. I prayerfully wish success and prosperity to our countries, the triumph of justice and mutual respect! Peace be upon you, mercy and blessings of Allah Almighty! Thank you for your attention!

Mufti Sheikh Ravil Gainutdin,
Chairman of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the Russian Federation,
Chairman of the Council of Muftis of Russia,
Member of the Council for Cooperation with Religious Associations under the President of the Russian Federation