The head of the Council of Ulema of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Russia, Shamil Aliyudinov, expressed a strong opinion about what happened (video in Russian with Tatar subtitles). He praised the education and theological level of the arrested Imam and compared the repressions against such people today with the repressions against the religious elite of Muslims in the USSR in the 1930s, stating that they have the same goals; he briefly stated that he «loves his country, loves his homeland», but then added that «as a Tatar and as a Russian» he says «shame, shame and shame» to those who carry out such repressions. This speech is truly sensational, not so much for what was said, but for who said it.
It was said by a person who for many years not only spoke from loyalist positions, but also criticized those Muslims who opposed the authorities, thereby preventing «constructive cooperation» with the official Muslim establishment. And today he directly states that «anyone can be framed, anyone can be arrested», but what has changed now, why this harsh tone? Didn’t Shamil Aliyudinov support this government when it arrested many Muslims, banned hundreds of books of Muslim literature, closed Muslim centers and organizations? (https://golosislama.com/news.php?id=31080)
From Shamil Aliyudinov’s speech we can conclude that this harshness is explained by the fact that they studied together at Al-Azhar. But perhaps the fact that Gabdrahaman Naumov, like him, is a member of the Council of Ulema of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Russia and also a teacher at the Russian Islamic University also influenced his tone. In short, a representative of the official «Muslim clergy», which is also losing its inviolability as a result of such repressions; well, as they say, everyone has his own threshold of pain and his own threshold of patience.
Therefore, whatever the reason for Shamil Aliyudinov’s outburst now, it is to be hoped that his inappropriate tone of recent years, under the conditions of neo-Stalinism, will remain in the past, and that he will use his fame and audience to speak out loudly about what he said in this emotional speech.
Almost four years ago, we wrote about why the only Moscow Imam who criticized the authorities for repressions against Muslims, Mahmud Velitov, was arrested (https://golosislama.com/news.php?id=29937). «… no one among the Muslims who are aware of Islamic life in Moscow was surprised that they came for Imam Mahmud. After all, in Moscow he was perhaps the last of the imams of official mosques who openly criticized the authorities for their anti-Islamic policies, did not join in the persecution of persecuted Muslims, did not justify it at every opportunity, and publicly defended Islam and Muslims against their enemies. It’s clear that in modern Russia such a person will not be allowed to remain free for a long time, and if he does, it will certainly not be as an imam of one of the legal mosques in Moscow,» the article said.
And what do we see today? After the few who were not afraid to expose the authorities, while they remained silent, satisfied with their position, praising the imams in power, they began to come for those who were silent then. And now they have to speak out as those who expose the authorities they recently condemned.