The two top leaders of Russia's estimated 14 million Muslims split today over whether to proclaim a jihad against the United States in response to the invasion of Iraq.
Supreme Mufti Talgat Tadzhuddin, the leader of an Islamic council claiming to represent all Russia, said the council's 29 Islamic departments had voted unanimously by fax early today to declare jihad, or holy war.
The mufti announced the decision before an antiwar protest by some 2,000 students in Ufa, the largely Muslim capital of the central Russian republic of Bashkortostan. While declaring a holy war, he did not say in detail what the council was asking ordinary Muslims to do, beyond contributing money for Iraqi war relief and weapons purchases.
At the same time, the chief mufti of Russia, Ravil Gainutdin, rejected any call for a holy war "even though the situation in Iraq is deteriorating."
"We must be realists," he told the Interfax news service today. "Jihad against the U.S. has been declared by Saddam Hussein. This is enough."
Apparently in a reference to Mr. Tadzhuddin, Mr. Gainutdin said religious leaders "must not engage in populism or politicking."
"Instead," he said, "they should pray to Allah that the Iraqi people's suffering end."
Mr. Gainutdin's Russian Council of Muftis controls 19 Islamic departments, fewer than Mr. Tadzhuddin, but is said to claim roughly as many adherents.
The two muftis are rivals in a long-running contest for leadership of Russian Muslims and favor from the Kremlin, which has sought to consolidate the Islamic movements under a single council backed by the government.
Mr. Tadzhuddin has staged an energetic campaign to create such a council and is said to have gained popular influence in recent months by taking a leading role in opposing American military action in Iraq. He has traveled to Baghdad and met twice recently with Russia's president, Vladimir V. Putin, but the Kremlin has not publicly taken sides in the contest for leadership of Russian Muslims.
Mr. Gainutdin has also been a sharp critic of the war in Iraq, endorsing the Kremlin's position.
The Kremlin had no comment on the declaration of jihad. But Russia's Justice Ministry issued a statement saying that as long as the mufti was calling on Russian Muslims to offer aid and moral support to Iraqis, "there is nothing blameworthy" in it.
"If attempts are ever made to hire mercenaries, buy weapons and transfer them to Iraq, this is a crime," a senior ministry official told Interfax.
The number of Muslims in Russia is only roughly known. Informed estimates place the figure at between 14 million and 20 million, mostly in central Russia and in the southwestern Caucasus region.
Mr. Putin has cited concern for the nation's Islamic minority as a major factor in the government's decision to oppose military action in Iraq.