The leader of the Bashkir liberation movement, Ayrat Dilmukhametov, has received a new prison sentence from the system for his calls for the decolonization of Bashkortostan, the press service of the republican FSB, which put him behind bars, triumphantly announced.
The Bashkir nationalist leader is accused of one of his articles entitled «Akhyr Zaman» (The Last Time). According to the Chekists (FSB officers), «according to the results of a comprehensive investigation, the article contains statements inciting the acceptance of Islam, the establishment of a new society, a new state, an independent republic of Bashkortostan, Bashkurdistan, by military and revolutionary means».
Ayrat Dilmukhametov was convicted of terrorism, but it is obvious that a terrorist would not carry out his activities while living openly in Ufa and not hiding from anyone. The content of the website he managed before his latest arrest clearly indicates that he was a civic, socio-political leader who considered himself part of the Russian democratic opposition in the broad sense.
It should be noted that the «Russian democratic opposition» will most likely once again ignore the repression against its Muslim member, as it has done several times in similar situations. For example, the repression against the leaders of the Tatar National Democrats, Fauziya Bayramova, who received a suspended sentence, and Rafis Kashapov, who is actually in prison and occasionally goes on hunger strike, went completely unnoticed by the Russian liberals. Both Bayramova and Kashapov were sentenced for supporting Ukraine, i.e. for the same actions that some Russian liberals engage in. So why did their cases go unnoticed by Russian democrats, unlike the case of someone like Mark Izrailevich Halperin, for whom liberals raised a massive uproar over his 38-day imprisonment? Not to mention the fact that the murdered Muslim journalist and human rights activist Timur Kuashev was also a member of the local branch of the «Yabloko» party, yet his murder, which deeply outraged the Muslim community, was simply ignored by his fellow liberals.
In fairness to Dilmukhametov, it should be noted that his activities were not always productive from an Islamic point of view. Without delving into the nature of his beliefs, which may be due to a lack of religious education or personal characteristics that are far from Sunni Islam, it is crucial to recognize that Dilmukhametov’s ideas and those like him have contributed and continue to contribute to the division between Bashkirs and Tatars, thereby undermining the position of Muslims in the region as a whole.
However, he is imprisoned not for these reasons, but for defending the rights of the Bashkir Muslim people against the empire of the «Russian world». Therefore, Ayrat Dilmukhametov, along with Rafis Kashapov, should undoubtedly be considered prisoners of conscience whose release should be demanded by our Ummah in Russia.
Ayrat Dilmukhametov’s recent prison sentence is a troubling development and raises concerns about the state of freedom of expression and human rights in Bashkortostan. The accusations against Dilmukhametov for his article «Akhyr Zaman» seem to be a pretext to silence his voice and suppress his legitimate demands for autonomy and self-determination. Labeling him as a terrorist without credible evidence raises serious doubts about the fairness and impartiality of the legal proceedings.