Chechen MPs suggest protecting religious literature from fighters against extremism

The Parliament of Chechnya has submitted to the Russian State Duma a draft law on a ban on recognizing canonical Islamic and Christian texts as extremist materials. Attempts to treat them as forbidden literature outrage the believers, the MPs have explained.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on August 31, 2022, Ramzan Kadyrov demanded to revise the decision to include the collection of sayings of Prophet Muhammad "Sakhih al-Bukhari"* into the list of extremist materials. In his opinion, the court "turned to incompetent expertise," while the "Sakhih al-Bukhari"* is "a reliable source of Prophet Muhammad’s biography, which Muslim scholars recognize as the second in importance after the Holy Quran." The Coordinating Centre of the Muslims of Northern Caucasus has proposed expanding the list of religious literature that cannot be classified as extremist materials.

Today, the Chechen Parliament has brought into the State Duma a bill banning to treat collections of hadiths and the works of four Islamic canonical schools as extremist, as well as the sacred Christian scriptures, in addition to the Bible, the Russian Agency of Legal and Judicial Information (known as RAPSI) reports.

Let us remind you that Ramzan Kadyrov has repeatedly expressed his indignation at the recognition of Islamic literature as extremist. In 2015, he filed a complaint against the decision of the court in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, which recognized as extremist material the book "Prayer (dua) to God: its meaning and place in Islam", consisting of a translation of verses from the Quran and sayings attributed to Prophet Muhammad. Besides, Kadyrov demanded a public apology from the judge.