Kadyrov creates his image of a defender of Muslims due to lifted ban on publication of “Sahih al-Bukhari”*

The Court of Cassation lifted the ban on the publication of the “Sahih al-Bukhari”* book amid the statements voiced by Ramzan Kadyrov, who is trying to position himself as the main defender of Muslims in Russia, religious experts Dmitry Mikulsky and Alexander Sotnikov point out. The court’s verdict cannot guarantee that the court in Tatarstan, which recognized the book as extremist, will change its decision, lawyer Svetlana Kuzevanova emphasizes.

The “Caucasian Knot” has reported that the “Sahih al-Bukhari”* book was included in the federal list of extremist materials. In July 2022, the Supreme Court (SC) of Tatarstan upheld the decision.

The dispute over the ban on the publication of the “Sahih al-Bukhari”* book may be connected with Aslambek Ezhaev, the head of the “Umma” publishing house, who was sentenced to a long term of imprisonment, believes Dmitry Mikulsky, an Arabist and Islamic scholar. On February 3, in Moscow, a court sentenced Aslambek Ezhaev to 17 years of imprisonment, finding him guilty of financing terrorism.

“Ramzan Kadyrov acts as a kind of the main defender of Muslims, but the dispute around the book rallied everyone around this task, including in Chechnya, Tatarstan, and in other Muslim regions,” emphasized Alexander Sotnikov, an expert from the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS).

*The publication is recognized as extremist material and included in the federal list of materials prohibited from distribution.