Moscow’s Actions Mean Muslims in Russia Not Obligated to Be Loyal, Idel-Ural Portal Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Nov. 28 -- In general, the Idel-Ural portal says, shariat law holds that Muslims living in a country whose government respects their rights to live according to Islam should obey that country’s laws; but Moscow’s expansive claims and its actions mean that Muslims living in Russia are not obligated to be loyal in the ways the Russian state expects.

            The portal, which promotes independence for the peoples within the current borders of the Russian Federation, lists three reasons why that is so (idel-ural.org/archives/pochemu-musulmane-rossii-ne-obyazany-byt-loyalnymi-ee-rezhimu/#more-14752):

            First, a course the Russian authorities are now promoting for Muslim religious educational institutions argues that Muslims in Russia who do not want to be part of the Russian civic nation have only one choice – leaving the country – an argument that ignores not only their rights under the Russian constitution but treats them as foreigners on their own lands.

            Second, it continues, the Russian claim ignores two aspects of shariat law, the requirement that Muslims revolt if the powers over them violate the principles of Islam or if the powers over them are ruling them as a conquered territory rather than as an equal part of the state as a whole.

            And third, the Muslims of Russia as citizens of that country have rights under the constitution that Moscow is routinely seeking to undermine and destroy. The Kremlin has effectively destroyed not only democracy but federalism and in both cases the rights of Muslims and other peoples as well.

            Consequently, the portal concludes, Muslims in Russia do have every right to revolt despite efforts by the Russian authorities to suggest that Islamic law prevents them from doing so.