20 Nov 2015 12:44

Head of Tatarstan's State Council speaks against identifying Islam with terrorism

MOSCOW. Nov 20 (Interfax) - Farid Mukhametshin, chairman of Tatarstan's State Council, has spoken against linking terrorism and Islam.

"I want to emphasize that we need to distinguish between Islam as a religion and terrorism as an ideology and practice," Mukhametshin said on Friday at a joint meeting of both chambers of the Federal Assembly.

"There is no such Islamic State [ISIL, banned in Russia]! These people have no religion, they are godless and they have no nationality," Mukhametshin said.

"No godless [person] does more harm to Islam as a world faith than members of terrorist organizations," Mukhametshin said.