Russian deputies have toughened the punishment for libel – now you can get a real sentence for it. (Euronews)

The Russian regime is once again “tightening the screws”, because it is no secret to anyone that this law is primarily aimed at increasing responsibility for criticizing the authorities.

Naturally, this innovation in the criminal code will be used to prosecute, including Muslims of Russia, whether in the North Caucasus, the Volga region, as well as in the Crimea, to which Russia extended its de facto power after 2014.

Similar tightening and persecution of any manifestation of dissent takes place in many Muslim countries, where tyrants have been in power for decades, persecuting their own peoples.

We all know that, for example, in Uzbekistan, as well as in a number of other Muslim countries of the Middle East, there is a criminal liability for teaching Islam without the appropriate permission of the official authorities. Criminal liability comes for teaching basic Islamic knowledge, like the pillars of Islam or the letters of the Arabic alphabet, not to mention the study of Islam as an ideology with its political and economic laws.

Often among Muslims one can hear the idea that such a tightening of laws indicates another victory of tyrants and the weakening of Muslims.

In fact, these often unprecedented attempts by rulers in the Islamic world indicate the exact opposite.

The Islamic Ummah day after day returns to its origins, reviving in its consciousness the correct understanding of Islam in all its subtleties and spheres, from aqidah, prayer and fasting, ending with Sharia law, which regulate issues of politics, economics and international relations.

I want to give one eloquent example that took place just a couple of weeks ago in Egypt.

We all know that America has a tremendous influence on the Egyptian army. It was America that demanded that the Egyptian military remove Hosni Mubarak from the rule in 2011, allowing the representative of the Muslim Brotherhood, Muhammad Morsi, to come to power. Similarly, in 2013, when a suitable political and economic situation in the country arose, the Egyptian military, led by Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, on the orders of America, overthrew Mursi.

Based on these events, many Muslims argue about the impossibility of any Islamic changes in Egypt precisely because of the Egyptian army is loyal to America.

Nevertheless, this incorrect statement was once again refuted by one photograph taken on December 12, 2020 during al-Sisi’s speech to officers and soldiers of the Military Academy. The thing is that al-Sisi made his speech at this event behind bulletproof glass.

Egyptian media have repeatedly accused the Egyptian president of such unprecedented security measures. For example, in July 2015, while at the headquarters of the Egyptian Police Academy during the graduation ceremony, he also delivered a speech behind armored glass. Thus, being in the circle of his guards in one of the most impregnable for storms fortresses in the country, among the military and police, called upon to defend his criminal power, the neo-pharaoh of Egypt appeared as a man who is afraid of his own shadow.

This is just one example of how the power of tyrants in the Islamic world is fragile as never before, and the intensification of repression is a sign of the agony of a criminal regime, not in any way a sign of its strengthening.

After all, the tyrannical rulers of the Islamic world are perfectly aware of the revival of the Islamic Ummah day after day, and this is what pushes them to intensify repression in the hope of curbing the inevitable return of Muslims to their Islamic origins.

Summing up, it should be noted that long-term management of a society with guaranteed development is possible only through ideology. Societies are governed by the power of thought, not the power of repression.

Ruling the country through fear, force of arms and repression throughout the history of mankind ended with the fall of the regime.

By the will of Allah, the Islamic Ummah today is on the eve of the widespread fall of tyranny in the lands of Muslims.

مَتَى نَصْرُ اللّهِ أَلا إِنَّ نَصْرَ اللّهِ قَرِيبٌ

“When will Allah’s help (come)? Oh! Indeed, the help of Allah is near!” [2: 214]

 

Fazyl Amzaev

Head of the Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir in Ukraine