Three Islamic religious works banned in Astrakhan

On August 31, 2012, the Prosecutor General's Office announced that the Krasnoyarsk District Court of the Astrakhan Region and the Kirov District Court of Astrakhan satisfied the applications of the Prosecutor's Office of the Astrakhan Region to recognize the books of Abdul Aziz al-Rayyis "Violation of Monotheism" (publishing house "Light of Islam" 2008) and Seyid as extremist materials Qutb "The Future Belongs to Islam" (publishing house "Santlada" 1993), as well as the book "The Last Journey. A Gift for a Muslim Girl" published by the All-Ukrainian Association of Public Organizations "Alraid". The books were seized by investigators in May 2011 during searches of Astrakhan resident Sorge Elderkhanov and two residents of the Krasnoyarsk district of the Astrakhan region, Magomed Magomedov and a 14-year-old teenager, carried out as part of a criminal investigation under Part 1 of Art. 282.2. The Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (organization of the activities of a religious association recognized by the court as extremist), brought against supporters of the Tablighi Jamaat brothers Yuri and Alexander Avdonin and their like-minded people. Previously, two other religious works confiscated from Alexander Avdonin were banned .

According to the conclusion of experts, the authors of these three works tried to justify the superiority of Islam over other religions “and spoke extremely negatively about other religions and the persons professing them,” “the text of these books contains calls to incite hatred and enmity, as well as to humiliate the dignity of a person or group of persons based on attitudes toward religion."

We managed to get acquainted with the text of the first two of the prohibited religious works. We did not find any inflammatory calls in them. As for affirming the truth of Islam and criticizing other religions and their adherents, as well as condemning the various attributes of European civilization, all this does not fall under the concept of inciting hatred. Let us recall, according to the explanation of the Supreme Court, “criticism of political organizations, ideological and religious associations, political, ideological or religious beliefs, national or religious customs in itself should not be considered as an action aimed at inciting hatred or enmity.” Thus, the ban on at least two of these three books seems to us to be unlawful.

Sources

• On the initiative of the prosecutor's office of the Astrakhan region, the book “The Last Journey. A gift for a Muslim girl”, “Violation of monotheism” and “The future belongs to Islam” are recognized as extremist materials // Website of the General Prosecutor’s Office of the Russian Federation. 2012. August 31.