“He who drowns even clings to a snake”: the Crimean Muftiate on the protection of “Hizb” by Kiev
Residents of Crimea have been listening to threats for almost 10 years from former fellow countrymen who did not accept reunification with Russia and fled to Kyiv, preferring the regime of the Bandera dictatorship. Even against the backdrop of the failed offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, such besotted individuals continue to intimidate the Crimeans - “dig basements, join the national battalions.” But those in their homeland have no time to waste time and energy on this - they need to build houses, kindergartens and mosques.
This opinion was expressed on the air of “Crimea 24” by the Deputy Mufti of the Muslims of Crimea and Sevastopol, Raim Gafarov, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
The studio cited as an example the statements of former Crimean businessman Veldar Shukurdzhiev, who fled to Kyiv in 2016 and joined the militants. Now he regularly advises his relatives to join the national battalions, and more recently he also recommends digging underground shelters and equipping them for life.
“We don’t need such advice and would-be advisors, and like Crimean Tatars, like Crimean Muslims, we are in our homeland. And we didn’t come here to dig, as he says, basements - we came here to build houses, to build kindergartens, to open mosques.
We now have everything for this, and comfortable conditions have been created for us, we know this and are grateful for it. And we don’t need such advice that is given for the sake of “hype”.
For 10 years now, such calls have been constantly repeated, both about this battalion and about the fact that we must leave our homeland. The people have made their choice, the people are here in their homeland, they feel comfortable.
We do everything to live together here as one big family. We know this, we appreciate it, and we will not let anyone spoil this comfort, this peace of mind. And we don’t need such advice,” Gafarov emphasized.
He also drew attention to the actions of the Kiev-appointed “mufti” of the Muslims of Crimea, Aider Rustemov, whom the Spiritual Administration of the Muslims of Crimea considers to be a mentally ill person, brought in from the street to play this role. In one of his last interviews, Rustemov began to stand up for the terrorists from Hizb-ut-Tahrir, who in Ukrainian times operated freely on the peninsula, but in the Russian Federation their activities were banned.
“Our people have this wisdom: he who drowns even clings to a snake. This is what is happening now. We have the Mufti of Crimea, who was elected as the kurultai of the Muslims of Crimea, and our position as the Spiritual Administration of the Muslims of Crimea, whether under Ukraine or under the Russian Federation, is the same - we have always been against these sects.
And when we look at the Russian Federation, these parties have been banned there since 2003-2004, not since 2014. And they are never judged for being a Muslim - there is no such thing. This is a substitution of concepts: they are being judged for being members of sects prohibited in the Russian Federation!” Gafarov pointed out.
He recalled that the current mufti Emirali Ablaev in 2014 asked to be given time, a transition period, to withdraw from sectarian movements without being held accountable.
“So that these people are not touched, but that they renounce beliefs that are alien to our people and Muslims. Two years were allotted for this, but they continued to engage in such matters, so they are responsible for their actions. And the self-proclaimed mufti talks about sects, encourages them and protects them. But the fact is that any religious person must understand that Islam calls for unity, and all these sects divide,” the deputy mufti emphasized.
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