The Russian Muslim community is concerned about the trend toward the development of migrant phobia

The Russian Muslim community is concerned about the trend towards the development of migrant phobia – the head of the Spiritual Assembly of Muslims of Russia, Albir Krganov, stated this yesterday. And the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation emphasized that “hate speech” on the topic of interethnic relations has returned to the country. Experts interviewed by Kommersant state that in the Russian public space “the taboo on the inadmissibility of nationalist rhetoric is disappearing.”

Yesterday, at the MIA Rossiya Segodnya site, a round table “The role of civil society in countering provocations on ethnic grounds” was held. At it, the head of the Spiritual Assembly of Muslims of Russia, Albir Krganov, said that the country’s Muslim community is worried about the threat of migrant phobia:

“It seems to us that this topic is being escalated, this wave is being stirred up. We are concerned that this wave of migrants may spread to Muslims who are citizens of our country. Who will stop this wave then?

The mufti emphasized that “one must speak on such topics very carefully.”

As “Kommersant” has repeatedly writtenIn recent months, State Duma deputies have proposed many prohibitive measures against foreign migrants – and “new Russians” who have recently received Russian passports. Thus, in August, the party “A Just Russia – For Truth” proposed legislatively limiting the number of migrant children in schools. At the same time, deputy Mikhail Matveev (Communist Party of the Russian Federation) introduced a bill on deprivation of acquired Russian citizenship for evading military registration, military duty or mobilization. In September, A Just Russia – For Truth proposed a ban on issuing licenses for civilian firearms and hunting weapons to persons who received Russian citizenship less than five years ago. The chairman of the faction, Sergei Mironov, mentioned, in particular, “the crime situation caused by the dominance of citizens from nearby countries” and “the need to protect the country’s residents from migrants.” Discussing this initiative, the chairman of the public organization “Right to Arms” Vyacheslav Vaneev said that the bill should not apply to “new” citizens who “ethnically belong to those indigenous peoples who live on the territory of Russia,” but for immigrants from Asian countries it proposed increasing the ban on obtaining weapons to 15–25 years. In October, the same SRZP introduced a bill banning migrants from working in medical institutions, pharmacies, schools, as well as taxis and cargo transportation.

In parallel, a number of harsh restrictive measures were proposed by some members of the Presidential Human Rights Council (HRC). Thus, the initiative to introduce school quotas for migrant children was approved by the head of the Human Rights Council, Valery Fadeev, and a member of the Human Rights Council, Kirill Kabanov, repeatedly called for a tough fight against “ethnic enclaves.” Also in October, Patriarch Kirill’s speech about the threat to Russian identity from migrants was widely discussed. “This kind of people does not become close to us either in faith or culture. They have their own faith and their own culture,” said the head of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The head of the Commission of the Public Chamber (PP) of the Russian Federation on interethnic, interreligious relations and migration, Vladimir Zorin, supported the concerns of Mufti Krganov: “It has not happened for a long time that serious people, public opinion leaders, deputies, public figures spoke in such a tone about peoples, about interethnic relations . We have done a lot to get away from this language and learn a culture of speech. I think that if it is not possible to re-educate someone, you need to think about the legislative framework and increasing responsibility (for such statements.— “Kommersant”)”.

“Hate speech has completely unexpectedly returned to our lives. It really seemed to us that we had overcome this in the mid-2000s and began to communicate normally with each other, covering interethnic relations. But no,” complained Margarita Lyange, deputy chairman of the RF OP Commission on Interethnic, Interreligious Relations and Migration.

However, the round table participants did not propose specific measures.

“The discourse is changing, the situation is heating up, and migration is, indeed, meaningfully associated with Islam. And all this at once seems to be taken beyond the boundaries of the collective “we”. While national policy and practice of interethnic relations should be aimed at the opposite, at integration – symbolic and actual,” Evgeniy Varshaver, head of the group for research on migration and ethnicity at RANEPA, told Kommersant. “But I would warn against sudden movements and a rigid default politicians. As the events in Dagestan show (meaning the mass anti-Semitic action at Makhachkala airport on October 29, 2023.— “Kommersant”), the work of the state with the field of meanings and interpretations of religion is no less important than sanctions against troublemakers. And it should be carried out on the basis of an analytical understanding of this field and the psychology of the ordinary participants involved in it. Measures must be differentiated, non-force by default.”

Political scientist Mikhail Vinogradov confirms that officials are increasingly trying to expand the boundaries of what is permitted in anti-migrant rhetoric: “Indeed, the taboo on the inadmissibility of nationalist rhetoric is disappearing. From the anti-Ukrainian wave to the lack of a clear response to anti-Semitic protests in Dagestan and the federal center’s self-removal from what is happening around Nikita Zhuravel.” Let us recall that on September 25, the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, published a video of how his 15-year-old son Adam Kadyrov beat Nikita Zhuravel, accused of burning the Koran, in a pre-trial detention center. This video caused outrage among a significant part of Russian society, but the press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov refused to comment on the incident. After this, the leaders of several Russian regions with a significant proportion of the Muslim population presented awards to Adam Kadyrov.

Another reason, according to the political scientist, is the crisis of values ​​declared at the official level: “There is no upgrade of ideas about interethnic tolerance to modern rhetoric; abstract words are spoken about the friendship of peoples. It is difficult to imagine prohibitive measures against migrants, especially since current attempts to send them to the army and the devaluation of the ruble reduce the attractiveness of the Russian labor market. However, the risks of arbitrariness in their status and, as a consequence, the growth of corruption are quite obvious.”

Emilia Gabdullina