14:49, 26 April 2017

Davydov's video clip about Koran and Bible put on extremist materials list

Ilya Davydov. Screenshot, video posted by Pavel Smirnov/YouTube

The video clip "Joke about Koran" by blogger Ilya Davydov has been put on the federal list of extremist materials based on the decision of the Zavodskoy District Court of Grozny, the Russian Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has reported. The "Sova" Information-Analytical Centre has treated this decision as unjustified and groundless.

Davydov's stage performance with jokes about the Koran and the Bible, dates back to the year of 2012. Later YouTube published the humorous presentation of Ilya "Maddison" Davidov "The joke about the Koran" with duration of 2 minutes and 6 seconds. In the video, the blogger uses abusive language to tell the audience how he bought the Koran and went to a toilet room to read it, but found no toilet paper there.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on February 3, the Chechen Prosecutor's Office demanded to bring blogger Ilya Davydov to criminal responsibility for the stage performance with jokes about the Koran and the Bible.

The judgement of the above district court is dated February 22, 2017. Based thereon, the video was added to the federal list of extremist materials on April 20, under No. 4086, says the website of the MoJ of the Russian Federation.

The clip by Davydov may be treated as provocative, but the dissemination thereof is posing no public danger, the "Sova" believes, seeing no grounds for attracting Davydov to criminal liability for extremism, says the statement of April 25 posted on the website of the Centre.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.