“True believers” of the Mejlis are looking for contacts with religious extremists of any kind in Crimea

After 2014, the Crimean Tatar Mejlis, recognized as an extremist organization in the Russian Federation, sharply changed its attitude towards radical political movements among Crimean Muslims. Members of the organization "Islamic Liberation Party" banned in the Russian Federation - "Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami" from condemned troublemakers in the rhetoric of the Mejlis turned into political prisoners and prisoners of conscience.

As a PolitNavigator correspondent reports, Deputy Mufti of Crimean Muslims Aider Ismailov explained this transformation simply: the enemy of my enemy, my friend.

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“Since they are all ill-wishers of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Crimea, they, naturally, are friends of people like them,” Ismailov noted on the air of “Crimea 24.” – If we take into account that the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Crimea is the chosen religious institution by the Muslims of Crimea, then opposition to the SAMK is a road to nowhere. This is an attempt to undermine the basic, core identity of both the Crimean Tatar people, and to open the door to the radicalization of the Muslim community. Because we always stand in the position of the overwhelming majority of Muslim minds, for more than 1 years - this is an understanding, this is a traditional practice, and it itself is present here, and the spiritual institutions that exist at the moment.

The SAMK represents this line and takes upon itself the function of developing and teaching Muslims to do this. As for the imams, they are all known, those who carry out activities without authorization with the spiritual administration in certain mosques. They don’t understand, these are people, fanatics, zombified, they have only “my thought and everyone else,” only “mine and everything else.” This is primitive thinking. While there was a moratorium in 2014-15, we had many conversations with them, but, unfortunately, we have what we have. Therefore, if people do not understand the words, the Almighty will send upon them a misfortune that will be understandable to them.”

As for the Hizb political movement itself, the Deputy Mufti recalled that there are no nationalities in it, and no national characteristics are taken into account.

“People appeal to the Crimean Tatar people, to Islam as such. Of course, this is a cover for them, because this party itself, which we are talking about, categorically does not accept any national characteristics, and constantly opposed them. Therefore, double standards are obvious,” Ismailov concluded.

Arguments that Hizb ut-Tahrir participants are being persecuted for gatherings under court buildings on the days of Hizb trials and systemic criticism of the Russian government, as well as the massive disloyalty of the Crimean Tatars to the events of 2014, are considered by the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Crimea to be a distraction from the essence of the problem – Hizb ut-Tahrir is banned in the Russian Federation and in almost all Arab countries, and this ban is enshrined at the legislative level.

“The substitution of concepts is taking place at the basic level,” Ibrahim Kaymakan, head of the legal department of the SAMK, is convinced. – As soon as people begin to be prosecuted for participation in an organization banned in Russia, defenders appear who misinterpret the very concept of legislation. It is argued that these are good people who do not commit any terrorist acts and are positively characterized in society, so why are they being held accountable?

And here - clearly for participation in the activities of an organization or party banned in Russia, in this case Hizb ut-Tahrir, which the Supreme Court of Russia recognized as a terrorist organization. And if a person is a member of it, even if he is the most beautiful, he automatically falls under responsibility. Lawyers who provide defense do not give this understanding to their clients. On the contrary, they prove that you are good people, you haven’t done anything bad, but here the fact of participation in a terrorist organization matters.”

The very essence of Wahhabism and Habashism, explains the secretary of the Coordination Council of the Crimean Tatars under the head of the Republic of Crimea, Professor Lemara Selendili, is the spread of Western ideology. And the organizations themselves are authoritarian sects, where submission is achieved by swearing on the holy book of the Koran.

“By presenting themselves as anti-Western organizations, they spread Western ideology, which I have encountered more than once,” the professor noted. – In February 2014, in one of the schools in Belogorsk, I discovered books on religion published in Great Britain on a stand with Crimean Tatar literature. But Great Britain has never been the center of the Islamic world, has never been an admirer of Islam, rather the opposite.”