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In Moscow a new Muslim maternity home, dental clinic and civil rights center opened up


The All-Russian social organization �Al�-Khak� (fairness) presented the public with new social and civil rights projects.

As the IA REGNUM correspondent reported, the organization opened the Center for Legal Support and Quick Response to Violations of Muslims� Rights, a Muslim maternity home and a family dental clinic that works according to the demands of the sharia.

�From our point of view, Muslims recently have become the people most deprived of their civil rights in the whole world, because every terrorist attack hits them first of all,� the chairman of the organization �Al�-Khak� , Kamilzhan Kalandarov, declared in a press conference in Moscow. At the same time he particularly stressed that the norms and demands of the sharia, which are protected by his organization, �will never be contrary to the present legislation and constitution of the Russian Federation�. According to Kamilzhan Kalandarov, the most important feature of the presented projects, especially of the Center for Legal Support, is the availability of free legal help: "Until now nobody has managed to do this, not even the state�s civil rights institutions, which are sitting on state budget money.� Lawyers from the law firm �Honor and Protection� are concerned with the legal help offered by the center. "With respect to legal advice, we have been working in this direction for a long time. In this way, we are responding to appeals not only from Muslims and other Russian citizens, but also from people with other citizenship, for example, migrant workers�, Elena Kil�chichakova, who is director of the Center for Legal Support and honorary lawyer of Russia, explained. We will not only offer legal help in the form of free consultations, but we will also defend people who are accused of criminal offenses.� As an example of a problem in court that demands a special approach in the process of law enforcement, she pointed out a case in which the Muslim defendant categorically refused to testify in court only because the judge was a woman.

Vladimir Zaborskiy, the head physician of the maternity home � 15, where some labor wards have been designated for Muslim women, told us about the obstetrics organization that works according to the norms of the sharia. As he said, the majority of pregnant women that arrive from the Caucasus or Central Asia and come to the maternity home to give birth have not been examined at all or are in extremely neglected condition. The obstetric process itself should include not only birth, but also pre-birth checkup and post-birth observation. These are two services which women who do not have Moscow registration or money for paid services are practically deprived of. "This program has been established to provide these services�, Vladimir Zaborskiy concluded. �As for the birth itself, the demands of the sharia are quite easy to fulfill: there are no men allowed to attend the birth, the women have to be allowed to carry out the name-giving ceremony and some very simple diet rules have to be followed. That�s all.� According to Mr. Zaborskiy, all of this does not complicate the work of the medical institute, break the sanitary-epidemical regimen or negatively influence the quality of medical care.

The Muslim family dental clinic, which was founded under the aegis �Al�-Khak� on the basis of the �Stomatology �2� corporation, was also founded with the aim to guarantee Muslims the possibility to make use of medical services in accordance with the norms of the sharia. "I was told that doctors must not use medication that contains alcohol, is made out of blood or tissues from pigs. That is pretty easy�, the general director of the �Stomatology �2� corporation, Viktor Denotkin, said. Moreover, he mentioned that a special location for the rite that the Muslims perform five times a day has to be available.

�Is all of this really necessary?� Farid-khasrat Salman, deputy chairman of the Central Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Russia, posed. �Yes, it�s necessary. Moscow is becoming one of Europe�s capitals, but if you take the examples of Lonodn, Paris, Berlin or Rome, you will see that Muslim structures are pretty highly developed, everywhere. Today�s presentation of these projects is just one part of the big Europeanization of our Capital. We base ourselves on the fact that Muslims who want to undergo treatment or give birth in Muslim medical institutions have a right to do so, but nobody forbids them (from the perspective of the sharia it is not possible to forbid this) to receive treatment in an ordinary clinic.

As an example of the Muslim traditions that demand special requirements of medical services, the mufti named the name-giving ceremony that cannot always be fulfilled if the mother is not dismissed from the maternity home for a longer time. According to Muslim belief, if the child has not been given a name in the course of seven days after birth, Satan can steal its soul. "Prophet Mohammed taught us that it is necessary to find recovery in two things: in honey and in the Koran. Honey means material things, drugs and various types of medication. The Koran means spiritual recovery. If in our medical institutes both aspects are maintained - then honor and praise to the initiators of these projects�, Farid-khasrat Salman summed up.

The IA REGNUM correspondent found out that right now the Russia-wide social organization �Al�-Khak� has branch offices in 47 regions of Russia, including Chechnya, Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karelia, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Tomsk and Kamchatka. �We will do everything to ensure that our primary organizations in the regions also open centers like our Center for Legal Support in Moscow,� Kamilzhan Kalandarov declared. In response to the question about the organization�s budget and its resources he answered: �You will probably be surprised, but we don�t have a budget. Until now we haven�t received money from anybody. We don�t even have an accounting of expenses. The budget of our organization is merely money from my own pocket and money from my friends.

[29.07.2005]

Source: IA Regnum

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