Russia: Muslims upset at book ban

Russia's ban of a list of highly readable and reliable Islamic books on the claims of preaching extremism has infuriated the Muslim minority who denounced the move as unjustifiable and totalitarian, the Interfax news agency reported on Monday, February 11.


"They published a list of banned Muslim books that does not violate the law on extremism or religious supremacy in the least," Russia's Mufti Ravil Gainutdin, said in an interview with Islam in the Russian Federation website.


Authorities have included recently more Islamic books to the Federal List of Extremist Materials.


They included "The Personality of a Muslim" by Muhammad Ali al-Hashimi. The book is seen as a staple religious text for tens of thousands of Russian Muslims.


It emphasizes kindness and generosity toward people of other faiths.


Other banned books included the works of famed Turkish Muslim theologian Said Nursi. (1878-1960).


Gainutdin said there is no excuse for the continuous banning of some of Islam's treasure books.


"Why is there no specific answer? Why have they published a list of banned literature without specifying?" he wondered.


Under the Extremism Law, mass distribution, preparation or storage with the aim of mass distribution of any banned book carry a four-year prison term.


Totalitarian


Gainutdin said the way Russian authorities have banned the books does not fit a democracy.


He said it is absurd and deplorable that no Muslim expert, no imam, no head of ecclesiastical department of Russian Muslims has been approached for counseling.


"Nobody requested a conclusion or an expert opinion from the Muslim clergy," he said.


He said Islamic books are banned in farce court hearings.


"The court proceedings were held without our knowledge, secretly, nobody represented the defendant. We think it is inadmissible."


The Mufti said he plans to lodge lawsuits with the Supreme Court and complaints with the Prosecutor General's Office to stop the book banning drive.


There are some 23 million Muslims in the Russian Federation concentrated in the north of the Caucasus, representing roughly 15 percent of its 145 million population.


Islam is Russia's second-largest religion behind Russian Orthodoxy.


Source: Islam Online (English)

See also: Russia: 'Muslim Russia', Russia: Islam flourishes

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

They should have banned the Koran. It incites religious hatred. That is illegal.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for your blog. Really muslims are destroying our world, culture, humanity and civilization. We must protect it.

Anonymous said...

the russians are a very racist inhumanne race of people who dont like jews and anynonewhite people muslims chinese etc all none russians shuold unite against these evil people before they destroy the rest of us with their lunatic weapons of mass destruction they have always tried to exterminate none white people just like other europeon peoples thruogh ethnic cleansing murdering etc just like they have done in the caucasuss for centuries the evil russia and europeons will be defeated in the end despite they have lunatic weapons to annihalate entire humanity

Anonymous said...

Totalitarianism in Russia? Say it ain't so!

Some people assume that because the Russian Federation sells arms to a lot of Islamic states that they're somehow sympathetic to Islamic jihad. But, like with most things, it's just a question of business.
Russia has and has had their fair share of trouble with Islam, like we all do.
Theirs mostly involves Chechnya and Islamic Terrorism resulting from that conflict. Notable examples being the Moscow Theater Siege and the Beslan School Hostage Crisis, where Islamic Terrorist took over a thousand hostages - mostly children - wired explosives around them, and began executing them.