We present the speech by Sheikh Humam Hammoudi, member of the Group, Iraqi politician, member of the Council of Representatives of Iraq, during the RIW group meeing in the Chechen capital Grozny.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
All praise be to Allah alone, and may His peace and blessings be upon His messenger and bondsman our Prophet Mohammed, his family and his companions, may the mercy, peace and blessings of Allah be upon you.
First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to the organizers of this meeting. I would like to confirm the significance of our regular meetings. Also, I would like to thank those who are hosting our meeting today, in particular the President and the Mufti of the Chechen Republic.
Today, we had a small trip and I have learned from it three important lessons. Firstly, we visited the cemetery and the grave of the first President of the Chechen Republic. He was the Governor, Mufti and President of the Republic and we admire him for that. However, he was killed. Who killed him? Those people who want to speak on behalf of Islam. And today we are facing a problem that is present not only in Chechnya, but in the Islamic world as a whole.
Our heroes are dying, our houses and enterprises are being destroyed by people who proclaim themselves Muslims and advocate the so-called true Islam.
I attended a conference in Mecca held by late King Abdullah. There were many other conferences, but the problem is that the results of such conferences sometimes don’t reach the broad audience, homes of ordinary Muslims, mosques, schools where speeches very often contradict those speeches that we say at our conferences. This is also a crisis. The reason for it is not in Americans or Israel, although they also play their role here.
The problem is that these destructions and murders are committed at the expenses of certain forces and we must fight it. It is the first lesson. The second lesson is that when I found out our conference would be in Chechnya I remembered that it had been always associated with crisis, war and some incidents. But when we came to Chechnya, we saw something rather different.
We saw the capital of this Republic where there is constant construction, where in 10 years it has been restored and moreover a new city was built. We saw a stable and prosperous city where people representing different population groups live with dignity.
Mr. Ramzan Kadyrov has ensures security and the rule of law here. Where there is a law there is security. The US and Israel are trying to destroy stability, security, they are making constant attempts at that. More than 100 years, since the Balfour Declaration of 1917 the Israelis have been continuing the war against our people. The war in Iraq in 1980, the first Libyan Civil War, the second Libyan Civil War, the invasion of Iraq.
Before ISIS there was Al-Qaeda, then Jabhat al-Nusra.
When will all these wars in our regions with huge oil and gas reserves and human resources come to an end? Certainly, Israel is responsible for that, but we, as members of the community, also bear a significant share of responsibility.
Why don’t we cooperate?
Why don’t we look at our history? Why don’t we interact with each other? Why do we have some prejudices towards each other? We face numerous challenges. Why do some of us make wars against others? As a result, there are constant wars and crisis that are not ending in Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Palestine, even in Egypt and in the Arabian Peninsula. Now everyone is threatened by these wars.
At first, we strive for stability and then within this stability begin a new struggle against ourselves. Many lofty words were said such as stability, security, cooperation. However, in reality we see in our region such principles as “either I or you will survive, either I or you will stay”.
In this regard, I am proud of the Chechen Republic, which over a short period of time has managed not only to restore all that was damaged, but actually to build a new republic and to achieve a decent standard of living for its people.
Now we don’t know what awaits us in Iraq after the battle of Mosul. Will we be able to restore peace and stability? We must coexist in the state with different parties, nationalities and religions. We must achieve social peace between them.
I want to mention once again that we have learned a very important lesson here in Chechnya.
And, finally, the third lesson I learned from this trip is the freedom of religion, the freedom of Islam that I witness in this Republic and that also has been a Russian quality throughout its history. Now we see its freedom in mosque building, Quran studying, in people’s clothes and actions.
In this land everything is done on behalf of Islam and coexist in peace, despite some differences, which of course exist between people. These are the traditions that existed in the Islamic Republic within the larger Russian Republic.
In this regard, I appreciate the efforts of President Putin and the way chosen by Russia in order to preserve different states and republics.
Turkey, Iran and Syria are ready to contribute to the solution of our problem. We won’t be premature to take a decision, however if Russia wins in this field it will certainly play a leading role in solving Muslim problems around the world. Western countries don’t want these problems to be solved and stop the crisis. Thus, with the help of God this decision will be implemented and Russia and our Muslim region will strengthen mutual trust and move to the stage of prosperity.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"