To prevent antireligious attacks is possible only by development of tolerance at all levels, Mintimer Shaimiev considers

President of Tatarstan Mintimer Shaimiev considers that representatives of various states and faiths should react adequately to the scandal caused by cartoons on prophet Mohammed publication in the European press.

In interview to "Interfax” Mintimer Shaimiev said: "This situation is so heated, that already it is impossible to do without a scale assessment of the event and reaching agreements between the states and confessions which finally should lead to dialogue between civilizations" .

The president named comical images of the prophet as insulting and blasphemous for feelings of believers "Such displays, irrespective of the religion is an attempt at foundations of belief and undermining moral principles", - M.Shaimiev stated. " Today - cartoons on Mohammed, and tomorrow cartoons on Holocaust may appear or still something not less offensive ", - the head of republic noted.

As he said, frequently one in Russia starts to pay attention on problems of interethnic and inter-confessional character only after somewhere undesirable excesses happened. If we speak about presence of a national policy it should not become lumpsum reaction to those or other cases. “The national policy should be pursued by the state on permanent and long-term basis", - M.Shaimiev counts.

He offers to form the profile committees in the State Duma and the Council of Federation which could have been engaged with subjects of interethnic and inter-religious relations and development of regulations in this sphere. The head of republic considers necessary adopting the corresponding legislative base to exclude in the future display of any liberties on these topics. "The price of a question is so high that to rely only on responsibility and wisdom of mass-media after the event simply is not worth doing", - M.Shaimiev believes.

Tatarstan leader reminded, that in the states with Muslim way of life the belief is a basis of behaviour of the person in a society. "In Islam the formula of belief says: " there is no God except for Allah and Mohammed his prophet", and in everyday life the saying of the prophet is a direct source of belief for a true Muslim", - M. Shaimiev emphasized.
He paid attention that in due time the scandal in Islamic world was caused by the publication of "Devilish verses" of Salman Rushdie, and not so a long time - the fact of defilement of the Quran at American Guantanamo base where captured talibs are prisoned.

The President of Tatarstan counts unjustified reaction of the governments of separate European countries to the event and especially references to a freedom of speech. "In these countries the Islamic world is called for patience, but at the same time, - M.Shaimiev noticed , - they keep offending feelings of believers, again publishing cartoons that turned into occasion for excuse of pogroms of Danish and some other European embassies on the part of the various extremist organizations in the Muslim countries that already led to deaths of people". The head of republic condemns such methods of counteraction. "No justification for pogroms. At the same time, it is impossible to call for tolerance, offending thus religious feelings of people, - such an approach is unacceptable and leads to impasse", - M.Shaimiev is convinced.

He declared, that only "showing tolerance the dialogue can be achieved. It is impossible otherwise, the same as it is impossible by force to subordinate to values of separate peoples and religions and to lead them to any general model", - the head of republic noted. In this connection he again paid attention on beginning of teaching bases of Orthodoxy at some schools of the country that caused ambiguous reaction in national republics. For each person, M.Shaimiev reminded, under the Constitution of the Russian Federation the right on free creed is guaranteed, therefore it is necessary to approach to this very accurately. "Schools where this subject is introduced unilaterally are presented in mass-media as examples of the best practices, but hardly in multinational Russia there are only mononational classes are present at schools", - M.Shaimiev said . He considers more reasonable and expedient to go on a way of creating Sunday schools where teaching of bases of world religions would be conducted on a voluntary ground. "All these issues can be solved calmly and by means of this to achieve the greater mutual understanding between people of different nationalities and different religious beliefs", - M.Shaimiev holds.