Islamologists linked the ban on the dictionary "Islam in the North Caucasus" with the campaign against the DUM

The Medina Publishing House and the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Russia are appealing the decision of the Moscow City Court, which recognized the encyclopedic dictionary "Islam in the North Caucasus" as extremist material. Islamic scholars and publishers call Roman Silantyev's examination biased and unscientific.

As "Kavkazsky Uzel" wrote, the Moscow City Court, following a lawsuit by the prosecutor's office, recognized the dictionary "Islam in the North Caucasus" as extremist material. The reason for this was the examination, which concluded that the dictionary disseminates information about terrorists. According to sources, we are talking about Shamil Basayev, Movladi Udugov and Khattab.

The information that became the reason for the prosecutor's office's lawsuit to ban the encyclopedic dictionary "Islam in the North Caucasus" edited by Damir Mukhetdinov was included in the publication solely for reference purposes, the authors of the book insist. The examination prepared by Roman Silantyev does not meet scientific standards, while the dictionary itself contains materials from leading experts from the Russian Academy of Sciences and MGIMO.

The publishing house plans to fight for its reputation

Following the decision of the Moscow City Court to recognize the encyclopedic dictionary "Islam in the North Caucasus" as extremist material, the Medina publishing house distributed a statement informing the scientific and educational institutions that participated in the project, as well as the authors and editors of the articles that attracted the attention of the prosecutor's office, of the decision.

The statement emphasizes that the publishing house and the Spiritual Directorate of Muslims of the Russian Federation intend to file an appeal against the decision of the Moscow City Court.

Back in July 2025, the director of the Medina publishing house, Ildar Nurimanov, whose commentary was published on the website of the Spiritual Directorate of Muslims of the Russian Federation, rejected the claims of the prosecutor's office. He noted that references to banned organizations and individuals in the dictionary are contained exclusively in the scientific articles "Wahhabis of the North Caucasus" and "History of Islam in Chechnya", in the context of their radicalism and illegal activities.

Nurimanov emphasized that these materials have already undergone scientific testing: they were first published in 1999 in the encyclopedic dictionary "Islam on the Territory of the Former Russian Empire" of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and have been in academic circulation since then. Thus, according to the publisher, the encyclopedic dictionary is of an exclusively academic and cultural nature and does not contain any signs of extremism or xenophobia. The publishers consider its inclusion in the federal list of extremist materials to be unlawful.

The first deputy chairman of the Russian Muslim Spiritual Directorate Damir Mukhetdinov, commenting on the appeal against the first decision on the dictionary made by the magistrate court, emphasized that the copyright holders intend to continue the legal fight. According to him, the management and publishers will seek a review of the decisions and use all legal mechanisms to protect the project participants.

“We intend to file an appeal to a higher court against the judicial decision made regarding the encyclopedic dictionary “Islam in the North Caucasus” and use all available opportunities to protect the professional reputation, honor and dignity of the team of authors and editors,” RIA Novosti quoted Mukhetdinov as saying.

The Medina Publishing House intends to continue to defend its legal position. The publishing house emphasized that leading researchers from the Russian Academy of Sciences and MGIMO participated in the preparation of the dictionary “Islam in the North Caucasus.”

Medina Director Ildar Nurimanov linked the accusations to the personal hostility of Roman Silantyev, who, according to him, initiated the appeal to the prosecutor's office and simultaneously authored “incriminating” publications in the media. He called what was happening "settling personal scores", noting that if the claims had scientific grounds, they would have been presented to a wide range of academic institutions and specialists who worked on the dictionary.

Islamic scholars linked the decision to the idea of abolishing the Russian Spiritual Directorate of Muslims

Pro-government officials and the media were distributing comments announcing the imminent abolition of the Russian Spiritual Directorate of Muslims, noted the author of the Telegram channel "NERUSSKY", Islamic scholar and former editor-in-chief of the publication islam.ru Rinat Mukhametov.

"Very important information has arrived that we have been waiting for... Since the ideological roots of this "collective work" (created by a group of people by prior agreement) grow from the Russian Spiritual Directorate of Muslims, it is possible to reasonably assume that soon a "doctor" will be sent to this "forge of extremists". It is high time. "Otherwise, the "patient" is getting worse and worse, he has lost his bearings in time and space," Mukhametov quotes Kabanov, a member of the Human Rights Council under the President of the Russian Federation, in a publication on his channel.

Mukhametov notes that "the dictionaries of the "Islam in the Russian Federation" series, with a good scientific reputation and the involvement of famous names in the academic community, have been published for 15 years by Deputy Head of the Spiritual Directorate of Muslims of the Russian Federation Mukhetdinov using money from the state Fund for the Support of Islamic Culture, Science and Education."

"Formally, the court found fault with the fact that when mentioning banned organizations and names included in extremist lists, the required asterisk is not included. The court did not heed the Spiritual Directorate's objection that this applies only to the media and social networks, and not to academic publications. He didn't even call the authors of the articles - from the structures of the Russian Academy of Sciences and MGIMO (...) Oh, and one more thing: the case materials include an expert opinion by Silantyev, who devoted his life to fighting the "saboteur" Gainutdin, who had deeply penetrated the top, and who has his own encyclopedia "Islam in Modern Russia", plus other competing "correct" literature," Mukhametov wrote.

The ultimate goal of this entire campaign "is to recognize the DUM RF as an extremist organization," a well-known Russian Islamic scholar told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent on condition of anonymity.

"This is all done in order to declare the DUM RF an extremist organization and ban it, Silantyev does not hide this. I think that the state does not need all this. It remains only to observe how the apparatus weight of the DUM RF and such figures as Silantyev correlate. "I don't think that such a powerful organization can be closed so easily," the source said.

The authors of scientific publications included by the publishers in the banned dictionary refrained from assessing the Moscow City Court's decision in a comment to the "Caucasian Knot."

A decision that is subject to immediate execution comes into force immediately, but it can be appealed, Mikki Arapiev, a lawyer with the Moscow Bar Association, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

"But at the same time, it becomes mandatory for execution. That is, searching for this extremist material will be prohibited from the day this decision is made, without waiting for it to be verified by the appellate court. At the same time, liability under this law does not arise unambiguously if, for example, a person did not know that this material was banned. This is logical, it is impossible to know by heart more than 5,000 materials from this list,” the lawyer said.

The court of first instance equated the scientific publication with the media

On August 7, 2025, the justice of the peace of the precinct No. 161 of the Pokrovskoe-Streshnevo district of Moscow issued two rulings concerning the publication of the book “Islam in the North Caucasus. Encyclopedic Dictionary”, edited by the first deputy chairman of the Spiritual Directorate of Muslims of Russia (SDM RF) Damir Mukhetdinov.

The publication contained references to organizations and individuals recognized as terrorist in Russia, while the text did not indicate that their activities were prohibited on the territory of the Russian Federation. The prosecutor's office qualified this as a violation of Part 2 of Article 13.15 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation (dissemination of information about organizations whose activities are prohibited by a court decision).

The defense argued that the book was a scientific publication and did not fall under this article, and also referred to the absence of an event of violation and the expiration of the statute of limitations. The court rejected these arguments, stating that liability arises for the very fact of dissemination of information, regardless of whether it is published in the media or in a printed publication, and the statute of limitations is calculated from the moment the violation is discovered.

As a result, two decisions were made: Mukhetdinov was found guilty and fined five thousand rubles, and the DUM RF itself as a legal entity was fined 50 thousand rubles. Both decisions do not provide for the confiscation of the publication, according to the decisions, copies of which are at the disposal of the "Caucasian Knot".

The defense insisted on the absence of an offense and the expiration of the statute of limitations

Representatives of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Russia and Damir Mukhetdinov in their objections to the decisions of the justice of the peace insisted on the termination of the cases, citing the absence of an administrative offense and the expiration of the statute of limitations.

The key argument of the defense is that the encyclopedic dictionary "Islam in the North Caucasus" is not a mass media outlet within the meaning of the law "On the Mass Media". This is an academic non-periodical publication that does not fall under Article 13.15 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, therefore, the application of the norm on "abuse of freedom of mass information" is unlawful, stated the objections filed by representative Alikhanov by proxy.

The defense also pointed out the erroneous definition of the subject of the offense - the publisher of the book is LLC "Publishing House "Medina", and not the DUM RF. The participation of the first deputy chairman of the DUM RF Damir Mukhetdinov in editing does not entail liability for the dissemination of content, according to this logic, the authors of the articles would also have to be held liable.

The objections emphasized that references to prohibited organizations and individuals in the dictionary are found only in a scientific and critical context, in articles by researchers from the Russian Academy of Sciences and MGIMO. These publications indicate the illegality of radical movements and armed groups, which excludes the interpretation of the book's content as extremist material.

A special emphasis is placed on the timing: the dictionary was published on May 3, 2023, and, according to the defense, the statute of limitations for prosecution expired on August 3, 2023. The cases initiated on the basis of the prosecutor's order of July 11, 2025, were initiated in violation of procedural deadlines, the representative believes. The defense emphasized that the offense cannot be considered ongoing, since we are talking about a one-time action (the publication of a book).

Thus, representatives of the DUM RF and Mukhetdinov insisted that the cases should be terminated due to the absence of an event and elements of an offense, as well as the expiration of the statute of limitations.

The Russian Muslim Spiritual Directorate and the Medina publishing house refused to answer questions from the Caucasian Knot.

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