Posted on 11/12/2002 8:50:00 AM PST by ppaul
Russia's media expressed has shock over a remark by Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Russia-EU summit in which he urged a Western reporter asking about the war in Chechnya to come to Moscow and "get circumcised".
Mr Putin's comments, made at a closing press conference of the Russia-EU summit in Brussels, were played by TVS television station and republished by several major Moscow newspapers and Internet sites.
The Kommersant business daily reports Mr Putin was asked a Danish reporter why Russia was using mine warfare in the separatist North Caucasus republic and exterminating Chechen civilians.
Reports say Mr Putin became infuriated by the question and launched an unprecedented defence of the three-year Chechen war that at one stage went off on a tangent.
"You, if I am not mistaken, represent an ally [of the US war on terror] and are therefore in danger," Mr Putin told the reporter, according to a transcript that appeared in the Vremya Novostei daily.
"They [the Chechens] talk about killing non-Muslims and if you are a Christian, you are in danger. And even if you are an atheist, you are in danger," Mr Putin is quoting as saying.
"If you decide to become a Muslim - even then you are not safe, because traditional Islam contradicts the conditions and goals that they [the Chechens rebels] set.
"But if you are prepared to become the most radical Islamist and prepared to get circumcised - I invite you to Moscow.
"We have specialists that deal with this problem. I suggest that you do such an operation that nothing grows out of you again," Mr Putin reportedly said.
Mr Putin is known for his tough talk that at times becomes interlaced with slang used by criminals and the military.
He launched the war in the predominantly Muslim Chechen republic in October 1999 by threatening to "waste [the Chechens] while they sit in their outhouses".
Russian media say a Kremlin aide explained to reporters after the Brussels press conference that Mr Putin was tired during the summit after a hectic working schedule.
The wide coverage given to Mr Putin's remarks appears unusual for a Russian media that has grown to carefully toe the Kremlin line in recent months.
Advice dismissed
Meanwhile, Mr Putin has brushed aside European advice on a peaceful solution to the Chechen conflict, saying it had to be solved by the Russian and Chechen people alone.
"Of course we listen to advice from our colleagues in Europe," Mr Putin told a news conference in Oslo after talks with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who said he hoped for a peaceful, political solution in Chechnya.
But he added: "It is an internal Russian problem to be solved between the Chechen people and the Russian federation."
Russia has scrapped plans for a partial military pullout from the southerly province since Chechen separatists took a Moscow theatre hostage last month.
The siege ended with the deaths of 128 hostages and 41 rebels.
"We don't want to turn up our noses and say that others' opinions are irrelevant," Mr Putin said.
But he added: "The problem is so complicated that no one can give really good advice."
Mr Putin said Europe had some good examples of conflict resolution but that other conflicts had rumbled on unsolved in other parts of Europe for hundreds of years.
Mr Putin has shown no sign of reining in the Russian military in Chechnya, where thousands of people have died in almost a decade of fighting.
Mr Putin has said a new constitution and elections offer the best prospects of a swift resolution.
"The political process on Chechnya must continue," Mr Schroeder said.
Mr Putin and Mr Schroeder met in Oslo because Mr Putin cancelled a planned visit to Germany last month during the theatre siege. Both men were, by coincidence, on visits to the Nordic nation.
Mr Schroeder and Mr Putin also said a UN resolution seeking to disarm Iraq offered a chance of peace.
Shortly afterwards, Iraq's parliament voted to reject the resolution while leaving the final decision to President Saddam Hussein.
Mr Putin said he hoped Arab countries would bring pressure on Iraq to comply.
Mr Putin said Moscow was keeping up contacts with Baghdad but that only Saddam knew what Iraq would finally decide.
Mr Schroeder reiterated on Monday that Germany would not take part in any US-led attacks on Iraq if Saddam failed to comply fully with the resolution.
Mr Schroeder won popularity before his re-election in September by ruling out sending troops.
LOL you people! tsk tsk!
Yeah... it's just a fringe minority that behaves this way...or that endorse the jihadist mindset.../sarcasm
MUSLIM CIRCUMCISION CEREMONY
It is compulsory for all Muslims to be circumcised and every year there is a religious ceremony performed in Penang where young Muslim boys are prepared for the imminent cut. Pic above shows the candidates seated in a row waiting ... Before the circumcision it is customary to feed the candidates with some yellow rice but this laddie is apparently not very interested to take it thinking of what's ahead .....
Some Muslims, especially in Egypt other parts of Africa practice Female Genital Multilation as well.
Yeah, the "clippery" has just opened a branch office.
Circumcision has been forced on hundreds of Christians, including children and pregnant women, in a campaign by extremists to spread Islam through the war-ravaged Maluku islands.
Victims have told the Herald of multiple cuttings with the same knives and razors that caused many to suffer infections.
In the biggest city in the islands, Ambon, church and other groups have gathered evidence that 3,928 villagers on at least six islands have been forced to convert to Islam under the threat of death, torture or destruction of their homes.
They believe that local Muslim clerics, possibly under duress from extremists, circumcised almost all the converts
....
"I could not escape," he said. "One of them held up my foreskin between pieces of wood while another cut me with a razor ... the third man held my head back, ready to pour water down my throat if I screamed.
"But I couldn't help but scream and he poured the water. I kept screaming aloud and vomited. I couldn't stand the pain."
Idi said one of the clerics urinated on his wound, saying it would stop infection.
"All of the men at the house were cut using the same razor," he said. "That night they circumcised about 60 men. I was bleeding all over and had nothing to cover my wound. I was told to take a bath but it kept bleeding until the next day. I could not imagine any greater pain. One of my friends got infected and was taken to hospital when we arrived in Ambon."
How do you know this? Is it possible you just haven't experienced their meanness?
I would tend to agree that all people aren't inherently mean, but that was base upon the example you brought up about whether it was easier to be mean than nice. Yes, sometimes. But there are a million other ways to be corrupt inside without being 'mean.'
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