Russia's Inter-Religious Council has strongly opposed the proposed construction of a Hindu temple and a Vedic cultural centre ''The Glory of India'' by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in Moscow.
Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov last week allotted to ISKCON about one hectare plot in Khodynka Field, in Moscow's northwest, for the construction of a Krishna temple.
''It is wrong to build a huge Krishna centre which will take a dominant architectural and cultural position in the city. A majority of Muscovites may misunderstand it,'' Metropolitan Cyril of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, in charge of the Mowscow Patriarchate Department of External Church relations told RIA Novosti news agency yesterday after the meeting of the Inter-Religious Council's presidium.
''Russia has a thousand-year long history of Christian Orthodoxy, Islam, Judaism and Buddhism. To build a major Krishna worship temple in its capital will be blasphemous, to an extent,'' vice-president of the Russian Muslim Board Muhammad- Ghali KhuzinMufti said.
''There are religions of global purport. We ought to be a ware of the aggressive missionary activities in Russia by religions and confessions non-established in this country. Authorities must have a watchful eye at what Krishnaites are doing here,'' Russia's Chief Rabbi, Berl Lazar said.
Russian Orthodox Church has from the very beginning opposed the proposed construction of the Krishna temple in Moscow.
Currently, a makeshift building serves as a temple in Moscow's Khoroshevski Shoshe, for about 16,000 Hindu devotees.
Last October, Alfred Ford, the great grand-son of the US automobile magnate Henry Ford visited Moscow to financially help build the temple and the Vedic centre, estimated to cost about 10 million dollar.