Muslims are outraged by the arbitrariness of the Moscow police

On March 1, the Islam.Ru news channel reported that Moscow police have been detaining and searching Muslims leaving the capital's Historical Mosque for several weeks for several weeks. “Law enforcement officers, citing “orders from above,” detain all men, regardless of nationality and the presence of relevant documents,” the channel reports. “They demand that they tell the camera their last name, first name, information about place of birth, residence, work, etc. . and are forced to spend the rest of the day standing in the corridors of police institutions, where the identified identity of the detainee is entered into the “Muslim database”, despite the presence of registration and all the necessary documents. Many of the detainees are offered cooperation with the relevant authorities.

According to reports from victims of arbitrariness by Moscow police officers, among others, Muslims with Moscow registration and Muslims of Russian nationality were detained. Despite the procedure established by law, according to which the detention of a person who has committed an administrative violation can last no more than three hours, many Muslims, whose violation apparently consisted of leaving the mosque, were forced to remain in police custody for more than five hours ".

According to Islam.Ru, searches and arrests were also carried out in the Cathedral Mosque and the Memorial Mosque of the capital.

Novaya Gazeta , reporting on these events, quoted the words of an employee of the department for combating organized crime of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Central Autonomous Okrug, who refused to give his name: “This detention took place as part of the Whirlwind-anti-terror operation. The goal is to fight organized crime. Sign an agreement on We did not demand cooperation from the detainees. We only demanded a detailed report on what they were doing in Moscow. In general, I can say: what we wanted to achieve, we achieved.”

Meanwhile, as the Sedmitsa.ru website reported with reference to Interfax, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergei Shchadrin said that he knew nothing about what happened. “I don’t know anything about any cases of document checks in mosques,” he said at a meeting with journalists on March 3. However, he added: “If we have information that among these persons there is someone on the wanted list, or a cache of weapons or prohibited literature was found in the mosque, then such checks can be carried out. And not only in mosques, but also in any other premises."

The website Polit.Ru, with reference to Echo of Moscow, reported on March 3 that the human rights organization Civil Assistance intends to go to court in connection with total checks of Muslims in Moscow mosques.

Also on March 3, the head of the Central Security Service of the FSB of the Russian Federation, Colonel Sergei Ignatchenko, in an interview with an ITAR-TASS correspondent, made a statement regarding reports that appeared in the media about total checks of Muslims in Moscow mosques: “We regard such reports as nothing other than a provocation aimed at destabilizing interethnic and interfaith relations within country, there were no so-called cleansings of mosques or other religious institutions." At the same time, S. Ignatchenko emphasized: “As necessary, we check everything - the metro, shops, theaters, any public facilities, institutions and crowded places. In any case, this work is aimed at ensuring the safety of the population, and the actions of the special services here have nothing to do with religion or nationality of those being inspected, since this is not only illegal or unethical, but also unprofessional.”

The Chairman of the Council of Muftis of Russia, Sheikh Ravil Gainutdin, speaking at the next meeting of the Council, emphasized that the police did not coordinate their actions against the Muslims who came to the Historical Mosque on February 27 with the Muslim Spiritual Board of the European part of Russia.

On March 3, the Union of Muslim Journalists issued a statement regarding the incident. The document, in particular, notes: “As Muslim journalists, we draw the attention of the leadership of law enforcement agencies to the fact that imams of mosques, law-abiding believers, will always be ready to assist the state in protecting the lives of peaceful people. However, insulting the religious feelings of worshipers, selectivity and unceremoniousness in relation to Muslims and their shrines, contradicts the spirit and letter of Russian legislation. The police and the FSB would only benefit from being especially sensitive in their dealings with believers, who understand that the security forces act in their interests. Rudeness and disrespect, on the contrary, will cause rejection among them. population.

We believe that the leadership of the Moscow police should assess what happened on February 27 in the Historical Mosque of Moscow and explain to its employees and all citizens how it intends to protect the rights of citizens without offending their religious feelings. We hope that the words of the famous song: “My police are protecting me” will be filled with real content, and the police will truly be popular and respected.”

The BBC service quoted Pavel Klimovsky, a member of the press service of the Moscow Department of Internal Affairs, as commenting on the incident: “This was a routine check of documents caused by yesterday’s terrorist attacks in Iraq. We will check not only Muslims, but also Orthodox churches and all others "The police will periodically identify those who are not registered at the entrance to churches."

On March 4, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation Alexander Chekalin commented to journalists on media reports regarding the incident in the Historical Mosque. He said: “No command was given for a total, widespread, complete inspection, including in mosques, I assure you as one of the leaders of the ministry.” “There is no need to confuse terrorism with faith and pit law enforcement agencies against respected people,” added A. Chekalin. At the same time, he did not rule out that checks could also be carried out in mosques, because after the explosion in the Moscow metro, “checks were carried out everywhere”: “We checked markets, hotels, train stations, and other places of mass gathering of visitors. It is possible that checks were also carried out in mosques."

During the same press conference, the head of the Main Directorate of Criminal Investigation of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Gordienko, commented on the information about 80 people detained during the inspection. Emphasizing that “we are talking specifically about detention, and not about arrest,” he said: “I am little informed about this incident, but if people were taken to the police station, then there were certain grounds for this. This does not contradict the law.” “Law enforcement officers have been given rights and given the appropriate mechanisms for their implementation,” said V. Gordienko. “Now, when the threat of explosions and terrorist attacks is high, such checks are justified.”

On March 4, an Organizing Committee was created in Saratov to collect signatures against the actions of Moscow law enforcement agencies, “who staged a raid on believers during the festive Friday prayer at the Historical and Memorial Mosques of the capital in February of this year.” See the text of the Statement of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the Volga Region.

The head of the Council of Muftis of Russia, Ravil Gainutdin, called the detention of Muslims in the Historical Mosque of Moscow "a provocation directed against Muslims on the eve of the presidential elections in Russia."

On March 5, commenting on the inspections in mosques, the head of the Main Directorate for Ensuring Public Order (GUOOP) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Nikolai Pershutkin, said that “in order to prevent terrorist and extremist actions, work was carried out on a number of religious sites. There are results, and these results exceeded all expectations.” : “in one of the mosques, persons involved not directly in the terrorist attacks, but in the corresponding ideological mood,” were detained.

Mufti of Karelia Wisam Ali Bardvil expressed his concern about the current situation in a letter to the heads of the FSB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia. “We believe that such actions in the future may have a negative impact on state-confessional policy and stability in Russian multinational society, and will also discredit law enforcement agencies in the eyes of Muslims,” the letter says. The mufti also expressed hope that the heads of these security agencies will assist “in suppressing such checks in the future” and that it will be possible to find “more acceptable ways of checking the documents of suspicious and other persons that do not offend the feelings of believers.”

Sources

• “Purges” of Muslims have begun in Moscow // Islam.Ru. 2004. March 1.
• Serova Y., Plieva N. Not a prayer, but an excuse from the security officers: Friday prayer in the Historical Mosque of Moscow ended in a mass raid // Novaya Gazeta. 2004. March 1.
• The police allegedly conduct total checks in the capital’s mosques in search of terrorists, but the Ministry of Internal Affairs denies this fact // Sedmitsa.Ru. 2004. March 3.
• The police are being sued for checking documents at mosques // Polit.Ru. 2004. March 3.
• The FSB calls reports from a number of media outlets about total checks and detentions of Muslims in Moscow mosques a provocation // Portal-Credo.ru. 2004. March 3.
• Muslims of the Volga region against “cleansing operations” in mosques // Islam.ru. 2004. March 4.
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• COMMENT OF THE DAY: “Ideologically ready” Muslims. Raids in Moscow mosques as a harbinger of the coming triumph of the “national idea” // Portal-Credo.ru. 2004. March 5.
• The Mufti of Karelia calls on the heads of the FSB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs to stop raids on mosques // Islam.Ru. 2004. March 11.
• Message from the press service of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the Republic of Karelia // Islam-info. 2004. March 11.