Source: moscowtimes
Thanks to phxmikefan
Former world heavyweight champion Mike Tyson
traveled to Chechnya on Thursday to open a Russian national boxing
tournament and said he had prayed for the war, which has been raging in
the republic since 1999, to end.
"I am glad that I am in the Chechen republic that I
have read and heard so much about, and am glad that I am among
Muslims," Tyson said, opening the event in Chechnya's second largest
town of Gudermes.
Tyson was a guest of Ramzan Kadyrov, the republic's powerful first deputy prime minister, who is a boxing enthusiast.
"We have seen on television an unfair war being waged
in the Chechen republic for a long time. We in America prayed for it to
end," Tyson said.
Channel One television showed Tyson wearing a T-shirt
and walking in a sports stadium under sunny skies to applause and
cheers from a young crowd. Tyson, apparently moved by the reception,
told the crowd, "Salaam Aleikum," the channel's news anchor said. The
four-day tournament is being held in memory of Ramzan Kadyrov's father,
the late Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov, who was assassinated in May
2004.
Ramzan Kadyrov said he had
invited Tyson in order to create a holiday for young people and show
that peace was returning to Chechnya, Interfax reported.
Kadyrov called Tyson by his Muslim name, Malik Abdul Aziz, Interfax reported. In Arabic, Malik means "king" and Abdul Aziz means "servant of the mighty".
Tyson spent several days in Moscow last week and
appeared on a talk show as part of a tour that included stopovers in
Turkey and Ukraine.
Mike Tyson left Chechnya Friday and headed for the neighboring Caucasian Republic of Daghestan, the Chechen president's spokesman said.
