Russia: Muslims raided, more Jehovah’s Witness literature banned

Forum 18: “Following an 11 December raid on a Makhachkala flat by ‘a whole busload’ of armed and masked rapid reaction police led by a Dagestani FSB security service investigator, some 30 readers of the works of the late Turkish Islamic theologian Said Nursi were taken for questioning. Six homes of other Nursi readers in Dagestan were raided. Ziyautdin Dapayev, one of two of those held who could face criminal charges of participating in a banned religious extremist organisation, lamented to Forum 18 News Service that Nursi readers are becoming ‘victims to the incompetence of some employees of the law enforcement agencies’. Dagestan FSB told Forum 18 no one could answer questions about the investigation. Nursi’s works have been banned in Russia, despite a 2007 Turkish government statement that they ‘contain no statements whatsoever aimed at inciting religious hatred’. Moscow Public Prosecutor’s Office confirmed to Forum 18 that it had issued an extremism warning to Ravil Gainutdin, chair of the Russia-wide Council of Muftis, for inviting a Turkish Nursi follower to a Moscow conference. Meanwhile, Jehovah’s Witnesses have lost their latest appeal against an extremism ban on more of their publications.”