Chechnya's Mufti, Salah Mezhiyev, issued a statement in response to criticism from Russia's Chief Rabbi, Berel Lazar. In it, he accused "atheists and Ukrainian Satanists" of misinterpreting his words, and the rabbi himself of making hasty statements without verifying the facts. This refers to Mezhiyev's comment on the program "Chechen History. War and Peace," in which he discussed atheism as a "movement born of the Jews."

"If he [Berl Lazar] relies on their translation and then makes a statement, then that's his problem. A big problem. In that case, we should be asking ourselves what we meant by that text, and what we were talking about in the first place." "If he and his ilk had fully grasped the meaning of our conversation, they would have realized that our speech is directed not only against the enemies of Allah, but against the enemies of all humanity," Mezhiyev said.

By "those enemies," he meant not Jews, but "dirty Zionists who are committing genocide," the mufti noted. Their goal, he said, is "together with Satanists, to enslave the entire world."

"We know what the Zionists are doing, how they committed genocide. They disregard any laws—neither UN laws nor interreligious ones. They need to be preached to. Not to me, but to them. They need to be admonished—not to commit genocide, not to oppress people, not to kill women and children," Mezhiyev declared.

The mufti emphasized that he "does not need admonition," adding that he respects all nations, religions, and faiths—as befits Muslims.

In that same October 20th program, Mezhiyev argued: "The enemies of Allah have long existed—the Jews and the movements they spawned, such as atheism. And it doesn't matter where this happens—in the Arab world or in Europe—there are always pseudo-Orientalists who spread lies."

Russian Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar called these words offensive to the entire Jewish people and emphasized that the Chechen mufti's position "runs counter to the officially stated position of the Muslim community."