Anti-dhimmitude alert: "Russian Muslims protest radical literature ban," from the Agence France-Presse, July 19:
MOSCOW -- Russia's highest Muslim council on Saturday issued a protest against a ban on some Islamic publications considered by the authorities to be "extremist."The Council of Muftis "has taken a decision to request that the relevant institutions of the Russian Federation carry out a repeat analysis of the books," the council said in a statement.
Starting last year, the authorities have compiled a regularly updated list of publications seen as breaking sweeping new laws against extremism. Most of the banned books are linked to Islam.
The council said it was "seriously concerned" that there was no official committee to analyze the literature and accused the experts who compiled the list of doing so "tendentiously and subjectively."
The Council of Muftis, which represents Russia's 20 million Muslims, on Saturday also called for a "balanced" approach in a criminal inquiry against a Moscow editor accused of publishing one of the banned books.
Soft-hearted and, which is sometimes the same thing, soft-minded Western Europeans and North Americans are one thing; Russians quite another. The demographics have not yet shifted so much in Islam's favor that all the cards can be put on the table. The Muftis will regret this.
There is no anti-dhimmitude here, just usual Russian absurdities. Last year, the Russian parliament passed a law on countering extremism. The definition of extremism adopted in that law was so braod that it effectively allowed the authorities to label any organization or publication they dislike as "extremist", and then ban it or, at least, intimidate. For example, state prosecutors investigated for extremism St.-Petersburg branches of several opposition parties.
Last summer the authorities in the town of Buguruslan (of which you never heard of, and neither did 99 percent of Russians) shut down a local madrassah. Why they did so is hard to tell; certainly not for fomenting violence and hatred of non-Muslims: you don't get in trouble for such in trivia in Russia. Most likely, the mufti fell out with an official, refused to pay a bribe, or something like that. The authorities seized several dozens of books on Islam, about half of them in ArabicLocal experts on Islam could not read Arabic, but they were qualified enough to determine that the books in Russian were Wahhabi literature. The literature included, among others, a certain book called 'A personality of a Muslim'. The testimony of those experts was accepted by the court, which banned the book as extremist. The story passed unnoticed by everyone, including the Moscow publisher of the book until this month when Moscow police launched a criminal investigation against the publisher.
A brief examination of the book's contents reveals that it's a typical piece of Muslim literature, i.e. a barely readable mess, on how to avoid quarrels within one's family. While the publication was indeed financed by the Saudis, what exactly is so Wahhabi about it remains unclear. The whole story is extremely silly, involving a draconian law, a cangaroo court, and phony experts.
My, this "Council of Muftis" sounds like such a polite, well-behaved bunch--how do you Russians do it, train them like that?
Oh, no, they don't.
If Muslims can raise such a big stink about Wilders's little collection of moving pictures, then they shouldn't be surprised when others decide their work is offensive and not worth showing as well.
What's good for the goose is good for the gander.
Dear Mr. Spencer and Mr. Fitzgerald,
I see that you are both in favour of such measures. Would you support them if targetted at other religious groups? and if not, why not?
For example, Russian authorities did something similar with jewish holy books in 2005(see below)
Best,
M.
ADL To Putin: Intervene To End Investigation of Jewish Holy Book
Update: On June 28, 2005, the Russian Prosecutor's office informed Russian Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar that the investigation had been halted.
_________________________________
New York, NY, June 27, 2005 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today expressed outrage at the decision of the Moscow District Prosecutor to order an investigation into the Jewish holy book that is the widely regarded authoritative text of Jewish law, on the baseless grounds that its contents are insulting towards non-Jews. Rabbi Zinovy Kogan, Chairman of the Congress of Jewish Organizations, which published an abbreviated version in Russian of the Shulhan Aruch, the 16th century codification of Jewish law, was questioned on June 23 by the Moscow District Prosecutor's office about its contents.
http://www.adl.org/PresRele/ASInt_13/4744_13.htm