Police Open Inquiry Into Quran Burning Video
The video, uploaded on YouTube on Jan. 5, depicts a group of young men in the dark, burning a Russian translation of the Quran with several lighters.
No faces are visible, but the video claims that the men are fans of prominent Moscow football club CSKA, known, like many other Russian teams, for its contingent of ultra-rightwing supporters.
The video cuts in the end to a shot in a metro car of a man of Central Asian appearance with bruises on his face. He is forced to repeat after people behind the camera: "I renounce Allah."
A criminal investigation team has been set up to find the people responsible for the video, a Moscow police spokesman said Thursday. He did not say which charges the perpetrators face.
Radical Russian nationalists are frequently charged with extremism or fanning religious hatred, charges punishable with up to four and five years behind bars respectively.
The video's uploader goes by the name Oleg Makarov. His Facebook page identifies him as a Muscovite and contains a link to a Wordpress blog dedicated to criticism of the Russian authorities and Muslims.
The video comes with subtitles linking the Quran burning to the string of suicide bombings in the southern city of Volgograd.
Source: The Mscow Times
