Violence of the lambs: Animal sacrifice ban sought in reply to Innocence of Muslims ruling

A group of Moscow residents has suggested outlawing animal sacrifices in the capital as a reply to the recent ban on the film Innocence of Muslims.

In a press release forwarded to all major media the group, apparently formed by the NGO called Public Coalition for Defense of Moscow, said they will soon write a draft of the bill banning all animal sacrifice and submit it to the legislative bodies of various levels. The activists hold that “ritual killings of animals are a barbaric tradition that insults the feelings of a great number of Russians and cannot be allowed in a civilized state in the 21st century.”They added that when the killings are done before children’s eyes this leads to developing cruelty and “negation of commonly accepted moral and humane values.”The group did not name the religions and confessions that still allow animal sacrifice, but openly stated in the same release that their initiative was a reply to the recent court ban on the infamous movie Innocence of Muslims. The huge influx of predominantly-Muslim migrants from ex-Soviet republics of Central Asia has already caused conflicts in Moscow and other major Russian cities. In November 2011, the Moscow police had to interfere to stop a sacrifice held by migrant workers in the middle of a city block. The incident was promoted in blogs and social network. Internet users noted that such cases were numerous and that the public was shocked and outraged by them. On October 1, a district court in Moscow recognized Innocence of Muslims as extremist material, effectively banning its spreading on all Russian territory. A short time earlier a district court in the Chechen capital, Grozny, passed a similar ruling, but quickly added that due to technical reasons it was not final.