The State Duma is put in defense of the canon – Newspaper Kommersant No. 17 (7462) of 01/31/2023

The State Duma is put in defense of the canon - Newspaper Kommersant No. 17 (7462) of 01/31/2023

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Chechen parliamentarians submitted to the State Duma amendments to the law “On counteracting extremist activity”, directly prohibiting the recognition of a number of Muslim religious texts as extremist materials. This applies to the collections of hadiths (the legend about the words and actions of the Prophet Muhammad) and the works of the four Islamic canonical schools – the Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i and Hanbali madhhabs. The initiative was preceded by a highly publicized court decision to include translations of the Sahih al-Bukhari collection of hadiths into the list of extremist materials. The first deputy chairman of the Council of Muftis of Russia, Rushan Abbyasov, who supported the bill, drew the attention of Kommersant to the fact that collections of hadiths are “the second source of Islamic knowledge after the Koran.”

The Chechen Parliament submitted amendments to Art. 3 of the law “On combating extremist activity”. “The Bible, other sacred Christian scriptures, the Koran, collections of hadiths and the works of four Islamic canonical schools (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i and Hanbali madhhabs), Tanakh and Kanjur, which are the main sources of dogma and an integral part of the cultural and historical heritage of the respective religions, their content and quotes from them, both in the text of the original source and in translations into the languages ​​of the peoples of the Russian Federation, cannot be recognized as extremist materials ”- in such a wording it is proposed to state the specified norm.

The authors of the initiative in the explanatory note refer to Art. 28 of the Constitution guaranteeing freedom of religion.

They remind that by the amendments adopted in November 2015, neither the fundamental religious texts (Bible, Koran, Tanakh and Kanjur), nor their content and quotations from them can be recognized as extremist materials. However, the subject of litigation is often “other religious literary and written monuments, which are canonical sources of the teachings of traditional world religions, which leads to public outcry and mass indignation.” In this regard, Chechen parliamentarians name collections of hadiths and works of four Islamic canonical schools (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i and Hanbali madhhabs), which are “the main sources of dogma and an integral part of the religion of Islam after the holy book of Muslims, the Koran.”

“Obstruction by the state of such sources, in fact, infringes on freedom of religion and diminishes the religious feelings of believers,” the explanatory note says.

Roman Lunkin, head of the Center for the Study of Problems of Religion and Society at the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences, believes that the amendments appeared in the wake of a scandal over the inclusion of translations of the Sahih al-Bukhari collection of hadiths into the list of extremist materials. The case was initiated by the Volga Transport Prosecutor’s Office after the collection in 2017 and five more books were seized at customs at Kazan airport. In December 2021, the Laishevsky District Court of Tatarstan recognized the mentioned work as extremist material, and on July 5, 2022, the Supreme Court of the Republic confirmed the decision. After that, Mufti of Tatarstan Kamil Samigullin spoke about “the problem of litigation related to the ban on Muslim literature.” He proposed the creation of a “all-Russian theological body for prepress examination” of religious texts (Kommersant reported this on September 4, 2022). Mr. Samigullin, referring to information from the head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov, then said in his Telegram channelthat the conflict did not pass by the administration of the President of Russia: “Ramzan Akhmatovich Kadyrov reports that the leaders were sympathetic to the indignation of our fellow believers, Muslim religious and public figures and reacted promptly, instructing the responsible persons to work out the issue of protecting texts and translations from reliable hadith from being recognized as extremist along with other sacred scriptures.

In the prohibited list of the Ministry of Justice, the mentioned publication is presented as follows: “Reliable traditions from the life of the Prophet Muhammad, may Allah bless him and welcome him: A clear presentation of the hadiths of the “Reliable collection”, compiled by Imam Abu al-Abbas Ahmad bin Abd al-Latif al-Zubaidi, translation from Arabic by Abdullah Nirsha, 5th edition, revised, M.: Umma, 2007, 960 pages (printed edition No. 4), except for the surahs, verses and quotations from the Koran contained in it.

The first deputy chairman of the Council of Muftis of Russia, Rushan Abbyasov, drew Kommersant’s attention to the fact that collections of hadiths are “the second source of Islamic knowledge after the Koran.”

“We fully support the legislative initiative of the Chechen parliament,” the mufti said. “Like the Holy Quran, collections of hadiths containing information about the words and deeds of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) are for Muslims sources of law, doctrine and guidance on the application of religious prescriptions in practice “. He added that the bill “is designed to prevent a situation where canonical texts that have been tested for centuries are recognized as extremist.”

Roman Lunkin believes that the document has every chance of being adopted: “Protection of the freedom of conscience of believers, in particular Muslims, in Russia is in line with the government’s policy of upholding traditional values ​​- all this makes the draft law quite promising.”

Pavel Korobov

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