A top Russian Muslim cleric proposed declaring a jihad, or holy war, against the United States because of the war on Iraq but was slapped down by the head of the main Russian Muslim community.
A spokesman for Talgut Tadzhuddin, titular head of the Muslims in European Russia, told AFP the jihad proposal "will be discussed by a special congress" of the Muslims of European Russia in Moscow on Saturday.
"Russian Muslims have real means of pressure against the United States," the Interfax news agency quoted Tadzhuddin as saying, referring to the US-led attack on Iraq launched on March 20 to eliminate its alleged stockpile of weapons of mass destruction.
"We will create a fund for the purchase of weapons and supplies for the Iraqi people," he said.
But Ravil Gainutdin, the spiritual leader of Russia's 20 million Muslims, said that the Council of Muftis which he heads would not declare a holy war.
"Russia's Muslims are not declaring jihad (against the United States) even though the situation in Iraq is deteriorating. We must be realists. Jihad against the US has been declared by (Iraqi President) Saddam Hussein. That is enough," Gainutdin told Interfax.
He reprimanded Tadzhuddin for "engaging in populism and politicking."
Earlier, a spokesman for Gainutdin told AFP that while "we all want a rapid end to the war, a declaration of jihad is completely pointless and (Tadzhuddin) has no right to make it."
Russia's Muslim community is divided into two strands, the first based in the central republic of Bashkortostan and following Tadzhuddin, the larger second strand based in Moscow and following Gainutdin whom the Kremlin regards as the country's senior Muslim cleric.
Tadzhuddin, who headed a delegation of Muslim clerics who visited Baghdad in the days just before the US-led attack on Iraq, noted that his was only the second declaration of a holy war in modern Russian history, the first having been declared in 1941 at the time of the German invasion of Russia.
He said the effects of the holy war would become apparent within two or three days, but did not elaborate.
Damir Khazrat Gizatulin, Gainutdin's deputy, stressed that "only the Council of Muftis is empowered to take a decision concerning a jihad" and that Tadzhuddin's declaration was issued "on his own initiative."
Tadzhuddin "is only the leader of Bashkortostan" and has "exaggerated his rights," Gizatulin said, noting that only 62 of Russia's 3,600 Muslim communities fall under Tadzhuddin's jurisdiction while the Council of Muftis controls most of the rest.
Russian Muslims should adopt humanitarian ideals "and send food and medicines to Iraq," Gizatulin said.
A Russian justice ministry official warned that attempts by Russian Muslims to back Iraq militarily could face legal action.
"Attempts to recruit mercenaries or buy weapons and ship them to Iraq would be subject to a criminal investigation," Sergei Nikulin, told Interfax.
Reflecting official concern with Muslim sensitivities, Nikulin added that there was "nothing reprehensible in people wishing to offer moral and material support to others of the same belief."
The head of the pro-Russian administration in Russia's war-torn republic of Chechnya, which has a predominantly Muslim population, dismissed Tadzhuddin's proposal as "mindless self-promotion."
"Russian Muslims are against the US war in Iraq, (but) we must express our sympathy with our fellow Muslims by other means," the ITAR-TASS news agency quoted Akhmad Kadyrov as saying.