We can hear a lot about the horrible Russian crimes against Muslims, which it commits outside its own territory. But do we in the Arab world have a clear view on how our brothers and sisters live in Russia, because there are more than 20 million of them? As you know, not so long ago, Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula, resulting in more than half a million of Muslims, the Crimean Tatars were under constant blows of the disbelieving Russian club. In this article, I would like to describe just one episode from the life of Russian Muslims.
On 2nd February 2017, Russian media reported the arrest of two Muslims from Belozerie village in Mordovia. Fail Salikhov and Ildar Kadeev are accused of an attempt to bribe a head of the local traffic police. Both Muslims are very well-to-do businessmen and, according to investigation, they wanted to realize their business interests by paying a bribe. In addition, during the search of Ildar Kadeev’s car (BMW 730), security forces suddenly “found” a hand grenade, a gun and its ammunition in the glove box and drugs in his clothes.
In fact, it is not an ordinary criminal case, because for several weeks the Mordovian village Belozerie is at the center of a political scandal, which literally alarmed the Russian information field.
For although Belozerie is administratively in the Republic of Mordovia, it is still a native land of the Muslim-Tatars (they are not to be confused with the Mongols, whose invasion on the Khilafah (Caliphate) in the 13th century was led by Khan Hulagu). These Tatars are the descendants of Volga Bulgaria’s inhabitants, this state officially converted to Islam in 992, and then it became the Wilayah of the Abbasid Khilafah (Caliphate) under the leadership of the Baghdad Khaleefah (Caliph) al-Muqtadir Billah. Today, after the five centuries of occupation, it is impossible to say that the Muslims of the Volga and the Urals regions preserve their understanding of Islam in its complete form. However, there are places where all residents fully adhere to their religion, all women wear according to Shariah and the products banned by Shariah are not sold in shops. So, Belozerie is one of those places. Moreover, Belozerie is one of the richest villages in the region, a lot of its inhabitants are businessmen. The village is one of the biggest Russian suppliers of sunflower seeds. Also in the village they manufacture halal meat products, which are found in many regions of Russia. Against the background of alcohol-addicted and degraded Russian villages Belozerie looks like a sample of rural life, however, it is likely, that this fact is of particular envy and hatred of the disbelievers and the Russian authorities. Belozerie is well known in Russia by its way of life, it is always taken as an example for hard work and order, and, of course, they explain that the reason for that is their Islam. Thus it appears that the village itself is a living example of the fact that following even individual Shariah laws ennobles society and leads it to well-being, and on the background of alcohol-addicted Russian villages this is a very influential phenomenon carrying a political challenge.
What was the scandal around the village, what did the Russian authorities decide to undertake against Muslims? It turned out that the authorities decided to force all the teachers and students of Belozerie not to wear hijab (headscarves) at school on the pretext that school is a secular institution. That is the disbelievers decided to strike at the most vulnerable category – at Muslim-girls, giving them an ultimatum: either you get education, or wear hijab. Moreover, when the question of the hijab in Belozerie began to be discussed in the media, it became clear that the authorities oppressed Muslims for a long time, so that they left their religious orders: for example, the authorities demanded that the shops of the village began to sell vodka (alcohol). And it is in Russia, where every year half a million of people die because of alcohol and alcohol is considered a national tragedy! But more than that, the teacher-Muslims, including the elderly, working in the school for decades stated that it happened that they gave them vodka instead of money on their salaries, so they had to throw out the vodka, while working for free, just to continue teaching children! And now cursed creatures demand from our pious sisters to remove the clothes prescribed by Allah, how they are deceived! The Messenger of Allah ﷺ did tell the truth:
«يأتي على الناس زمان الصابر فيهم على دينه كالقابض على الجمر»
“There will come for those times when sticking to their religion will be similar to clamp in the hand fiery coals” (Tirmidhi).
When the authorities put the question of hijab point-blank one of the villagers, an influential businessman Ildar Kadeev, stood up for the sisters. In the Internet their appeared videos where he told about the authorities’ crimes against Muslims of Belozerie, urged Muslim leaders to stand up for their sisters. After this it was he, whom security forces planted the guns and drugs, as well as fabricated in the criminal case against him for bribery. This story has a much more incredible to the imagination details, but the format of this article does not allow to describe them all.
As we can notice, Russia openly declares war on Islam and Muslims, it mercilessly massacres them in Syria and painfully mocks them in its den. The enemy of Allah Putin is trying to squeeze Islam from Muslims by forcing them to his “Russian” version of Islam. But he tries in vain because neither the tsarist Russia in the course of centuries nor the atheistic communist regime for 70 years could do it!
It is for this reason that today Russia is a place where Muslims feel increasingly clear the consequences of the absence of the righteous Khilafah (Caliphate) established by the method of Prophethood, of the shield and the protector of the Ummah in the face of the Khaleefah (Caliph), as was said by the Messenger of Allah ﷺ:
«الإمام جنة يقاتل من ورائه ويتقى به»
“Indeed Imam – a shield behind which are fighting and who are protected” (Bukhari, Muslim).
May Allah hasten the day of its return, amin.
Muhammad Mansur
Written for Ar-Rayah Newspaper – Issue 118