Russia's Council of Muftis complains to authorities about recognition of Koran translation as extremist

On September 20, Ravil Gainutdin, Chairman of the Council of Muftis of Russia complained to the Russian leaders about the decision of the Novorossiysk court to recognize the translation of the Koran made by Elmir Kuliev as extremist.

On September 17, the October District Court of Novorossiysk granted the lawsuit filed by the Transport City Prosecutor's Office and recognized the book of Elmir Kuliev, a well-known Azerbaijani religious philosopher, entitled "Semantic Translation of Holy Koran in Russian Language" as extremist.

According to the certificate of study issued by the Forensic Centre of the GUVD (Chief Interior Department) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of the Russian Federation for the Krasnodar Territory, "the book contains statements that negatively evaluate a person or a group of persons on grounds of belonging to a particular religion (in particular, non-Muslims)." This was reported by the information analytical centre "Sova" on September 18.

Ravil Gainutdin, Chairman of the Council of Muftis of Russia, has stated that Russian Muslims are indignant about the decision made by the October District Court.

"I officially appeal to the authorities of the Russian Federation and ask to stop the shameful practice of banning traditional Muslim religious literature and change the absurd procedure for considering such cases in courts," states the appeal of Ravil Gainutdin that was published on the website of the Council of Muftis of Russia on September 20.