Popular translation of the Quran banned

On September 17, 2013 in Novorossiysk, the court banned Koran translated by Elmir Kuliev. September 17, 2013 Oktyabrsky District Court Novorossiysk satisfied the claim of the transport prosecutor's office of the city and recognized extremist book by the famous Azerbaijani religious philosopher Elmir Guliyev "Semantic translation of the sacred Quran into Russian" (Semantic translation of the Holy Quran into Russian language. Translated from Arabic by E.R. Kuliev. 1st edition. King's Complex Fahd on the publication of the Holy Quran. Medina Munavwara. Saudi Arabia, 2002).

The book was contained in one of the postal parcels and attracted attention law enforcement. Checking the decision of the investigative department for Novorossiysk on the refusal to initiate a criminal case under Part 1 of Art. 282 of the Criminal Code (excitation hatred or enmity, as well as humiliation of human dignity) in connection with importing the book, the transport prosecutor's office sent the translation of the Koran for examination, the results of which cannot be considered unexpected, taking into account the practice of banning authoritative Islamic religious works in Russia in recent years.

According to the certificate of the study of the Forensic center of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation for the Krasnodar Territory, "in this book there are statements in which a person or a group of persons is negatively evaluated according to signs of attitude to a particular religion (in particular, non-Muslims); contain statements that talk about the advantage of one person or groups of persons in front of other people on the basis of their attitude to religion, in particular, Muslims over non-Muslims; positive statements hostile actions of one group of persons in relation to another group of persons, united on the basis of their attitude to religion, in particular, Muslims on the basis towards non-Muslims; as well as statements of a stimulating nature, semantic understanding calling for hostile and violent actions one a group of persons in relation to another group of persons united on the basis of a relationship to religion, in particular, Muslims in relation to non-Muslims" .

Certainly, similar conclusions can be drawn by reading more part of the ancient religious literature, but this does not give grounds for a ban sacred books of world religions. However, the Oktyabrsky District Court of Novorossiysk did not see any obstacles here.

It should be noted that Kuliyev's translation is recognized and popular, the author was awarded the medal of the Council of Muftis of Russia "For Spiritual Unity".

This translation, from our point of view, has no fundamental ideological differences from other existing translations of the Koran into Russian. We also note that the theological nuances in no way interested either the authors of the examination or the court. Here we are in solidarity with the opinion of Forum 18, a Norwegian human rights organization for the promotion of religious freedom, as detailed in the article by Forum 18 correspondent Geraldine Fagan " Russia: What's wrong with "extremist" Koran translation?" .

The court's decision, from our point of view, not only unlawful, but illiterate and scandalous, has not yet entered into force.

Recall that in July 2012, the Kuibyshev court of Omsk recognized Kuliev's book "On the Way to the Koran" as extremist.

Sources

• In Novorossiysk, the court recognized as extremist the book "Semantic Translation of the Holy Quran into Russian" // Municipal news feed. Novorossiysk. 2013. September 18.
• Decision in case No. 2-3649/2013 // Website of the Oktyabrsky District Court of Novorossiysk. 2013. September 17.
• Geraldine Fagan. RUSSIA: What's wrong with "extremist" Koran translation? // Forum 18. 2013. October 1.