Dagestan: followers of Turkish scholar complain of power agents' pressure

Ibragim Mutrazaliev, a resident of Makhachkala and a follower of the Turkish scholar Said Nursi, whose written works were forbidden in Russia by the court in 2007, said that he was summoned to the Department of the Russian FSB for Dagestan, where he was asked to evidence against another Said Nursi's follower - Ziyavdin Dapaev. The latter, against whom a criminal case was opened under the article of the Russian Criminal Code dealing with "organizing the activity of an extremist organization", told about pressure on his relatives.

"Inspectors ask to sign some documents stating that Ziyavdin is the head of a certain extremist organization 'Nurdzhular', allegedly uniting Said Nursi's followers, but it all has nothing to do with reality, as there is no such organization in the world, while Ziyavdin is my friend and co-thinker," Ibragim Mutrazaliev told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent on August 29.

He has noted that similar pressure is exerted on other followers of the Turkish theologian. "In 2007, the Koptev District Court of Moscow found attributes of extremism in Said Nursi's books. Later, the Supreme Court of Russia satisfied the presentation of the General Public Prosecutor of Russia on recognizing the 'Nurdzhular' organization to be extremist. On the basis of these verdicts, searches and detentions of Said Nursi's followers were undertaken all over Dagestan; local detectives became hostages of the mistakes of the Supreme Themis; now they press on us demanding to confess of the crimes we never committed," said Mutrazaliev.

Ziyavdin Dapaev has added that he now knows certain details of the psycho-linguistic examination of Said Nursi's written works. "No attributes of extremism were found in them; now we are accused just of 'forming sacrifice in the name of idea' and 'appeals to world reorganization in metaphoric form.' But in fact such charges may be presented to anyone, from communists to liberals," Dapaev is surprised.

Several days ago, lawyer Murtuzali Barakaev, who is defending the interests of the followers of the Turkish scholar, said: "The mess around Said Nursi's works is pure politics. All the experts assert that the Turk's works have no extremism, and there is no such organization as 'Nurdzhular' at all."

Abdullah Mukhametov, editor-in-chief of the federal information Internet resource "Islam.Ru", had earlier also highlighted that Said Nursi's books meet, in the opinion of major Islamic scientists, all the Islamic canons.

He has assumed that this sort of behaviour may be explained, to a certain degree, by the fear of everything that comes from Turkey.

Rikhard Panteleichuk, an expert of the Moscow Helsinki Group, believes that Said Nursi's books contain nothing seditious.