The Supreme ‘court’ of the Republic of Crimea has accepted the claim of the regional Department of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation to liquidate the Muslim community ‘Alushta’ and exclude it from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (USRLE). This is reported by ‘Crimean Solidarity’ public association.
As explained by lawyer Rustem Kyamilev, the mosque was in the community’s gratuitous use for more than 15 years. After 2014, the community had to re-register under Russian law. According to the lawyer, it has been under pressure since then and still is.
‘Because the community is independent. It is not controlled by the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Crimea (DUMK) and, accordingly, by the state. As we know, the state’s rhetoric regarding such independent communities is as follows: legally they are allowed, but their number is minimal. They are trying to influence its processes in all sorts of ways, both legal and illegal,’ Kyamilev said.
The Justice Ministry’s lawsuit says the local religious organization ‘Alushta’ ‘allowed actions aimed at carrying out extremist activities’, which committed ‘a gross violation of the legislation regulating the activities of religious organizations’.
‘But the Muslim community ‘Alushta’ has colossal influence. If it were some kind of destructive or with a terrorist bias, people would not turn to Imam Ashirov to conduct worship rites, collective and festive namazes, marriage ceremonies. Yusuf-aga Ashirov was invited to schools to conduct explanatory work among the youth as an imam. For so many years people know the community as educating the society, young generations to be law-abiding, not committing immoral acts. The community has not committed any destructive actions or inaction,’ the lawyer summarised.