MOSCOW - Thousands of Russian Muslims are prepared to go to Iraq to "defend the Iraqi people" from US attacks if war breaks out, the head of the Council of Muftis of Russia, Ravil Gainuddin, said Wednesday.
"People come from Muslim regional organizations in Russia with pain in their hearts to say that they want to go to defend the Iraqi people if war begins," said Gainuddin, whose council groups Muslims of central and western Russia.
"There are dozens now, and soon there will be hundreds and thousands," he told a press conference, adding that the council planned to send a delegation to Iraq "to observe the situation with its own eyes ... and to meet with Iraqi government and spiritual officials."
Saying the council had "the warmest and most respectful relations with the Iraqi people," he added that a military operation against Iraq would be "a tragedy for the whole region" and could trigger "a wave of terrorist acts" across the world.
Russia counts around 20 million Muslims among its population of some 143 million. Most live in the northern Caucasus region including Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia and in the central republics of Tatarstan and Bashkortostan.
Moscow has so far sided with Berlin and Paris in opposition to a precipitous war on Iraq, and it backed a Franco-German memorandum at the United Nations on Monday urging a peaceful disarmament of Baghdad.
The text was a counter-proposal to a new draft Security Council resolution filed by the United States, Britain and Spain and widely seen as setting the stage for an imminent war.
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