Police Raids On Mosques Are Denounced

At a March 11 press conference in Moscow, representatives of various religious minorities denounced heavy handed police raids on several mosques in the Russian capital that had taken place two weeks earlier. According to Agence France-Presse, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry had stated soon after the raids that among those arrested were Muslims who were accused, not of being involved in terror bombings, but who “exhibit ideological tendencies sympathetic to terrorism.”

Taking part in the press conference was the Baptist human rights lawyer Anatoly Pchelintsev, who has specialized in religious freedom cases involving Christian minorities. Also present were representatives of Russia’s Jewish and Pentecostal minorities–though not their top leaders.