Muslim website banned in Samara

On March 7, 2008, in Samara, by a court decision, was declared extremist and banned. the Muslim site "Islam as it is"

This site hosted a brochure "Novruz Holiday and Islamic Doctrine", the text of which states that the Navruz holiday has pagan roots and therefore should not be celebrated by devout Muslims. As stated in the final part of the text, attempts to present Navruz as a Muslim holiday "have a negative impact on the very idea of ​​the universality of the Islamic religion, its universality, globality and represent attempts to present this world religion within the narrow framework of their national and tribal views."

The leadership of the site "Islam as it is" was not informed about the trial and the resulting court decision.

On June 18, 2007, an employee of the Center for Ethnological Research of the Ufa Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences A.B. Yunusova wrote an examination, on the basis of which the prosecutor's office of the Samara district of the city in the same year issued a warning to the imam and muezzin of the local mosque for distributing this brochure.

The text of the examination seems to us illiterate and far from the legal field. First of all, the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation for the Republic of Bashkortostan, which was the customer of the study, formulated the question to the expert in such a way that this wording alone is sufficient to recognize the examination as illegal. The question ( “Does the presented publication contain extremist manifestations, as well as elements that can contribute to inciting interethnic and interreligious hatred” ) contains direct wording of criminal articles, which is prohibited by law.

is given . In the examination, much attention is paid to examples of the celebration of the "spring holiday" in different world religions and cultures, discussions about the long cultural tradition of celebrating Navruz, but not a single example of the actual signs of extremism in the text under study

Thus, the conclusions of the expert opinion that the authors of the brochure are trying to separate the ethno-cultural tradition from the religious one, destroy the image of Islam as a tolerant religion, contribute to radicalization and can lead to a split in society along religious lines - these are just general phrases that are not related to the law, but the final assertion that the distribution of the pamphlet may contribute to incitement of inter-ethnic and inter-religious hatred is simply unfounded. We did not manage to find a single sign of extremism in the brochure.

We consider it unlawful both issuing warnings to the imam and muezzin, and the decision to recognize the site that published the brochure as extremist.

In addition, the text is widely distributed on the Internet, and therefore banning one site where it was published does not make much sense.

On April 17, 2008, Rustem Valiullin, the lawyer of the site's author, referring to the fact that the examination was carried out illegally, filed a cassation appeal with the Samara District Court against the decision to ban the site, which was dismissed on May 3, 2008 on formal grounds. The lawyer sent a private complaint to the Samara Regional Court against this decision.

On June 23, 2008, this private complaint was upheld, allowing continued efforts to challenge the decision to ban the site.

Sources

• Website deemed extremist banned in Samara // Blagovest-info. 2008. March 7.
• A. A. Alizade (Abdullah Ali). NOVRUZ HOLIDAY AND ISLAMIC DOCTRINE // Islam as it is.
• The author of the recently banned Islamic website was not notified of the trial // IA Islamtat. 2008. March 11.
• The result of a religious study of the brochure "Navruz Holiday and Islamic Doctrine" // The project of the lawyer Valiullin Rustem Rafaelevich "For the rule of law!".
• Private complaint against the ruling of the court impeding access to justice // The project of the lawyer Valiullin Rustem Rafaelevich "For the rule of law!".
• Attempts to introduce Navruz into the religious doctrine of Islam do not stop. Scientists can be held criminally liable for their research // The project of the lawyer Valiullin Rustem Rafaelevich "For the rule of law!". 2008. July 23.