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The Grand Turk

'Basically a Turkish organization.' Why Damir Mukhetdinov was fined

2025-08-09

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Vadim Kushakov

Why “Turkish”? The organizations listed below are/were linked to Al Qaeda and ISIS.

[REGNUM] The Spiritual Directorate of Muslims (SDM) of Russia and the first deputy chairman of this structure Damir Mukhetdinov were fined by a court decision - 50,000 and 5,000 rubles, respectively. The reason was extremist statements contained in the Encyclopedic Dictionary "Islam in the North Caucasus".

The book was published in 2023 by the Medina publishing house, which is associated with the DUM. The editor -in-chief of the publishing house is Damir Mukhetdinov. The book "Islam in the North Caucasus" is already the 10th volume in the series "Islam in the Russian Federation".

According to the Moscow Justices of the Peace portal, the case in which Damir Vaisovich Mukhetdinov is indicated as the person involved was registered on July 15 of this year. On August 7, a ruling was issued to impose an administrative penalty.

At the same time, a court case was initiated and completed, in which the religious organization “Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the Russian Federation” was listed as the party involved.

In both cases, the cases were heard under Part 2 of Article 13.15 of the Code of Administrative Offenses - "Abuse of Freedom of the Mass Media." This concerns punishment for public dissemination of information about extremist and terrorist organizations - without indicating that the organization has been liquidated or its activities are prohibited in Russia.

“POLITICIAN” BASAYEV AND “PARTISAN” KHATTAB
Open sources provide scans from the encyclopedia, which was sanctioned by the Spiritual Directorate of Muslims and was published under the editorship of Mukhetdinov.

For example, in the story about the “largest ideologist of the movement” of Dagestani Wahhabis, Bagaudin Magomedov, it is stated that in 1997, “escaping persecution,” he took refuge “in the territory of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria.” This criminal-terrorist formation is mentioned as if it were a legitimate “republic.” It is also not mentioned that the “Ichkerian” structures are included in the list of extremist and terrorist organizations.

The head of the Dagestani Wahhabis, Bagaudin Magomedov, is essentially being whitewashed - after the report that he issued a fatwa on the permissibility of kidnapping people, a disclaimer is immediately made: “There is no reliable information confirming this report.”

The organizer of the terrorist attacks, Shamil Basayev, who sheltered Magomedov, is called a "Chechen political figure." The same applies to another, also liquidated leader of the gangs, the "ex-president of Ichkeria" Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev. The "Ichkerian Goebbels" Movladi Udugov, who is hiding in exile, is also called a political figure. The fact that he is included in the list of terrorists is also not mentioned in the DUM publication.

The terrorist and mercenary Khattab, the commander of the Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade, which is recognized as a terrorist organization, including in the United States, is simply called the "squad commander." The mention of separatist militants is in quotation marks. Apparently, in the authors' opinion, they should not be considered militants?

The terrorist actions of the Islamists under the leadership of Khattab (who, as the court established, is responsible for the explosions in Buinaksk, Moscow and Volgodonsk) are called “a guerrilla war with federal troops.”

The authors of the encyclopedia were selective in their labeling of organizations banned in Russia. ISIS is named as such. But it is not mentioned that the "Caucasus Emirate" is on the list of banned terrorist organizations. Although the Supreme Court of Russia made a decision on the "Emirate" back in February 2010, 13 years before the encyclopedia was published.

The Wahhabi movement is said to have been “subjected to serious repression” after 1997, and this radical Islamist community was “hit with repression.” And finally, the fight against terrorism in the North Caucasus in 1999–2002 was called — pay attention — “the second Russian-Chechen war.”

DO RUSSIAN SCIENTISTS APPROVE?
This raises questions: why was a publication with such wording received a calm and even friendly reception in the Russian academic community?

"It should be emphasized that the authors of the dictionary entries for the new edition are researchers from the Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography and the Gamzat Tsadasa Institute of Language, Literature and Art within the structure of the DFRC RAS, as well as representatives of the Dagestan State University," the material on the DUM website, dedicated to the presentation of the encyclopedia in Makhachkala in June 2023, emphasizes. DFRC RAS is the Dagestan Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

But the first presentation with the presence of Damir Mukhetdinov took place in Moscow, at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The website of the Spiritual Directorate of Muslims notes that Vladimir Bobrovnikov, head of the Center for the Study of Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the Ural-Volga Region, and leading researcher at the Institute of Oriental Studies, spoke on behalf of the authors of the dictionary “Islam in the North Caucasus.” “According to him, “Islam in the North Caucasus” is distinguished by the breadth of the authors involved, a number of unique materials on the history and modernity of the development of Islam in the region,” the official resource of the Spiritual Directorate of Muslims wrote.

"MORE THAN 40 RECRUITERS DETAINED"
It is strange that questions did not arise for a long time about the DUM itself, notes religious scholar Roman Silantyev, head of the laboratory of destructology at the Moscow State Linguistic University. “In August of last year, three of their imams were arrested as ISIS recruiters - two in the Tyumen region and one in Ulyanovsk,” Silantyev recalled in a comment to the Regnum news agency.

Indeed, in June 2024, it became known that security forces detained the imam of the Mubarak mosque in Ulyanovsk, Mars Abbazov. And in August of last year, it was reported that the imam of the mosque in the city of Kazarovo in the Tyumen region, Arslan Abdullah, and Alisher Dedamirzaev, the imam of the Tyumen Cathedral Mosque named after Umar ibn al-Khattab, were detained.

“This is just for the last year; in total, there are more than 40 such recruiters detained,” notes Silantyev.

The interlocutor believes that the prosecutor's office, which initiated the inspection of the dictionary "Islam in the North Caucasus", could have been "offended" by the behavior of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims in December 2023. The Council of Ulema - lawyers of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims issued a fatwa (explanation) that a believer is allowed to have up to four wives.

Chief Mufti, Chairman of the Muslim Spiritual Board Sheikh Ravil Gainutdin stated that the main goal of the fatwa is to protect women and children in a polygamous religious marriage. Article 14 of the Family Code of Russia directly prohibits polygamy.

"The DUM received as many as four warnings from the prosecutor's office before the department withdrew this fatwa. Moreover, it withdrew it, but did not respond to the prosecutor's office, as required by law," Silantyev notes. He believes that such an attitude to Russian legislation and the demands of the supervisory authorities could not have passed without consequences for Sheikh Gainutdin's structure.

Silantyev believes that the supervisory authorities could also be interested in other books published by the DUM - “ perhaps this is not the only case, their literature is of very poor quality.”

The DUM has long attracted the attention of both the general public and law enforcement agencies with the constant scandals it creates, Silantyev emphasizes. For example, let us recall that only after the publications in the press did Damir Mukhetdinov remove from his office a painting of the Horde military leaders trampling Russian soldiers after the Battle of Kalka. This was all the more strange because Islam does not welcome portraiture, not to mention paintings glorifying pagans (the Mongol-Tatars who came to Russia professed polytheism).

"And these scandals destroy the interreligious world, because they claim that their leader Mufti Gainutdin is the leader of all Russian Muslims. Some believe this and associate them with Russian Islam, which is not true. Only a small part of Muslims are guided by them," the interlocutor believes.

According to Silantyev, the problem with the DUM is that this structure “generally reflects the Turkish view” of Russian Islam. “Essentially, it is a Turkish organization, and it publishes literature with pro-Turkish views, naturally,” the interlocutor emphasizes. Such views were reflected in the encyclopedia compiled by the DUM, where law enforcement officers found, in essence, “a relay of terrorist propaganda,” Silantyev believes.

Posted by:badanov

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