Muslims asked Sobyanin to pay for damage from the demolition of the retail pavilions in Moscow
Russian Muslims held a round table discussion in the State Duma on the issues of Islam and the society. Despite rather semi-official name 'Traditional Islam and modern Russian society: trends and outlook', the discussion was lively, and sometimes very emotional. What Muslims want — found out the correspondent Realnoe Vremya.
'They are terrorists, they are murderers, but not religious people'
'Any Muslim is a terrorist and an extremist, and every woman in hijab hides somewhere a couple of kilos of TNT,' it is hard to say when such image was entrenched in the mass consciousness. However, it is obvious that it offends Russian Muslims who are more than 20 million in the country, according to the Imam of the Moscow Cathedral mosque Ildar Alyautdinov, the brother of famous Islamic business coach ('trillionaire'). At the same time, a real Muslim believer can't commit a terrorist attack — it was emphasized by Imam, it was supported by the religious scholar, an expert of the Duma Committee on Affairs of public associations and religious organizations Aleksander Baranov:
'Islam is one of three world religions, which religious studies call a 'religion of peace'. This is by the official, religious, scientific words: 'a religion of peace'. The religion of peace can't be associated with terrorist activities. They are terrorists, they are murderers, but not religious people,' said the expert.
'It would be better if the word 'extremist' used without any religious colouring'
All participants unequivocally condemned the terrorist attacks in Brussels and honored the memory of victims with a minute of silence. Then they assailed the media: journalists, according to the participants, contribute to a negative perception of Islam. The event with the nanny-killer they tried to bind to 'Islamic trace', the extremely media terrorist group Islamic state (ISIS, prohibited in Russia) contributed a lot. Journalists do not know how to distinguish between Islam as a traditional religion and attempts by terrorists to cover up 'their horrific deeds in the name of God and prophet Muhammad' (quoted from the draft resolution).
'Our goal is to make the words 'Islamic extremists' no longer existed in the same sentence. It would be better if the word 'extremist' used without any religious colouring,' said the expert of the Duma Aleksander Baranov.
The co-host of the round table, the head of the public association Tolerance Arslan Khasavov, who is an expert in media issues, stood up for journalists:
'In media researches, the concept has already been established — 'convergent edition'. It is journalists-workers operating a number of machines simultaneously who if there is a conflict in the Donbass, they write about the conflict in the Donbass, if there is so-called Islamic state, they write about Islamic state; if tomorrow will be any conflict, they will provide analytical materials on this topic. Accordingly, there are economic models, the heads of these media save money on specialized experts that way.'
The communities are constantly visited by the prosecutor who demands from them the license for educational activity
One of the main problems and one of the main areas of infringement of private rights the participants called a lack of religious education.
'One of the reasons of terrorism is the lack of spirituality and lack of proper education in matters of religion,' believes Imam Ildar Alyautdinov. 'How do we enlighten Muslims, tell them what is white and what is black? We have mosques, in Moscow there are only four, they admit a limited number of people. There are communities that barely exist.'
Imam also complained that the communities are constantly visited by the prosecutor who demands from them the license for educational activity since they systematically carry out it. The presiding at the round table head of Committee of the State Duma Stepan Medvedko opposed him: he referred to article 5 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, which states that the education of the followers is not an educational activity and does not require licensing if it's not theological seminaries.
There are no positive programs about Islam on television anymore, announced Alyautdinov:
'Two years ago we had a program 'Muslims' on the channel 'Russia'. People from the whole Russia were looking forward to this show to see something wonderful and interesting. We talked about the culture of Muslims, of various nationalities, stood in the way of the rapprochement between the different nationalities and different faiths. The program was closed, and today we don't have even five minutes to talk about Islam.'
The presenter of this program Dinara Sadretdinova confirmed that the program had a very high share (i.e. the ratio of those who is watching it to all those who is watching TV) — 20-25%. Besides, the program was a kind of breakthrough media, said the presenter: no European state channel or Russian one did not have a presenter in hijab, and not even in every Islamic country it is possible.
'You can ask any Muslim: are your rights being violated? He will say: 'Yes, I can't study my religion, I can't wear a shawl, I can't do salah, I can't eat Halal food — neither in schools nor in kindergartens nor in different institutions,' continued the Imam of the Moscow Cathedral mosque in a raised voice. 'In Russia there are about 20 million [Muslims — editor's note]. Twenty million! Just think about it — twenty million!..If we are going to restrain it by force, it will not lead to anything good! We say that we are ahead of Europe. But how? According to the Imam, recently it has become 'fashionable' to ban Muslim literature as extremist. But there are no experts — orientalists, religious scholars — in the commissions who would be able to give an adequate interpretation of these literature.'
However, Ildar Alyautdinov did not remember the recent scandal when in Sakhalin the court banned the book 'Prayer to God' which contains quotes from the Koran. Then the head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov stood up for the believers (he called the judges 'shaitans' and 'national traitors') and personally President Vladimir Putin who proposed to prohibit to check the Quran and the Bible for extremism.
'To defray at the expense of the Moscow government the material damage to former owners and employees of these commercial enterprises'
The participants of the round table discussion put a pinch of religion in story with the demolition of trade pavilions in Moscow in February of 2016. Thus the Moscow authorities, according to the participants, have deprived many Muslims of the right to work. The draft resolution had the following phrase: 'Due to the fact that demolished in February 2016 shopping centers are not possible to be restored, to defray at the expense of the Moscow government the material damage to former owners and employees of these commercial enterprises turned out on the streets in the crisis.'
However, this requirement doesn't have a single word about Muslims. Whom pay damages: to all, regardless of religion, or only those who go to the mosque? It is not possible to understand whether this requirement is political or it is related to the protection of the rights.
The participants also requested to furnish prayer rooms at railway stations and in airports (by the way, Domodedovo and Vnukovo have such rooms), to oblige the Federal Penitentiary Service to provide the places of deprivation of liberty with similar facilities and to enter into the system the Institute of imams.
Halal, according to the draft resolution, should be one of the state standards and be subject to state control. Halal food should be in schools, in kindergartens, and in the army — of course, we are talking only about Muslims.
In conclusion, the Muslims asked for the right to wear hijab openly in public institutions and on the street, and tell people about Islam, in order the hijab did not become the reason of dirty looks and fear. 20 million people – it is an impressive part of the country.