Beslan memorial plan angers Russian Muslim leader

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Beslan memorial plan angers Russian Muslim leader

By Christian Lowe
43 minutes ago

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Plans to build a memorial to the 333 hostages killed three
years ago in the Beslan school siege have sparked a row between Christians and
Muslims in Russia.

The local Russian Orthodox diocese says it will build a church in the grounds of
Beslan's school No. 1 to commemorate the victims -- half of them children --
killed in a clash between insurgents and Russian troops.

But one of Russia's leading Muslim clerics has accused the Orthodox church of
trying to hijack a national tragedy by building a memorial that he said would
exclude the more than 20 million Muslims who live in the country.

"It is not acceptable to present this tragedy as the tragedy of followers of only
one religion," Sheikh Ravil Gainutdin, chairman of the Council of Russian Muftis,
said in a statement.

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Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070404/wl_nm/russia_beslan_memorial_dc_1