The statement by Ravil Gainutdin, the head of the Council of Muftis of Russia (SMR), about the absence of problems for Muslims in China, amid numerous testimonies from Muslims and non-Muslims about their lives being turned into a living hell, could not leave the Muslim community indifferent. As is often the case, the head of its Asian branch (DUMCHR), Mufti Nafigulla Ashirov, raised his voice in defense of Muslims.
«China itself has admitted that it keeps millions of Uighur Muslims in camps! If you can see, look! If you can hear, listen!» the mufti wrote on his Facebook blog. «Undoubtedly, Muslims in China have serious problems, the whole world is writing about it, and there is plenty of evidence! Many claimed that the Rohingya genocide in Burma was also fake when Muslims protested at the Burmese embassy, but now even the UN has recognized the genocide!» he wrote in another post.
Mufti Ashirov also presented testimony from a Uighur Muslim describing China’s war against Islam: «The number of Muslims in China is about 60 million! 40 million Muslims live in East Turkestan. The number of mosques in East Turkestan is about 40,000. More than 25,000 mosques were destroyed in 2017. About 10,000 were closed and turned into drinking places — bars and cafes. Some mosques remain, but people are afraid to go there because of the ongoing arrests and ethnic cleansing of Uyghur Muslims. There are 35 million Uyghurs. There are also Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Tatars, for a total of 5 million! The total number of Muslims is 40 million! At the beginning of 2017, Muslim scholars were arrested, then national leaders, and then they started arresting merchants and young people, so in just three months since January 2018, more than a million Muslims have been arrested. Recently, the well-known translator of the Koran, Mohammed Suley Damla Khadzh, became a martyr. China continues its crimes! Arrests and state terrorism have intensified not only against Uyghur Muslims, but also against Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Tatars, and all non-Chinese peoples in general! Prisons and special camps are filled with torture and threats against 5 million detained Muslims! And all because they believe in Allah, the Almighty! I cried when President Erdogan opened a mosque in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan! China is destroying dozens of mosques and killing Muslims every day! All this under the pretext of fighting terrorism and extremism! But the Muslim world is silent, closing its eyes to what is happening, while China is openly leading to the completion of the genocide in order to cleanse the region of Muslims! Why is the world silent? China’s economic power has closed its eyes! What you eat from them, your stomach will consume fire,’ they say.
Such a bold reaction of Mufti Ashirov, who clearly spoke out against his leader from the SMR on this issue, can be explained by the fact that in general he is more afraid of the wrath of Allah than the wrath of his earthly leadership, which has made him an outcast in the Russian Islamic establishment. As for the words of Gainutdin himself, his lawyers have explained them in recent days by saying that he was forced to utter them from the Kremlin in order to please his Chinese partners, or out of fear that if he condemned the Chinese authorities’ policy toward local Muslims, Putin would receive a call from Beijing and be forced to present the mufti’s head on a platter.
In this regard, we would like to say that we are the last ones to defend the prevailing order in Putin’s Russia, but even we cannot deny that people are not yet imprisoned or removed from their positions for criticizing Chinese policies. Perhaps one day this will be the case, but for the time being it is not, as evidenced by the fact that the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Tatarstan, which is much more loyal to the Kremlin than the SMR, allowed itself to express its position on this issue through the words of its leader, Kamil Samigullin. In particular, Kamil Samigullin wrote on his Instagram: «Everyone asks me how I feel about the situation that has arisen in China regarding Muslims. How can a religious leader relate to an anti-religious policy? The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said: ‘There is indeed no superiority for an Arab over a non-Arab, nor for a non-Arab over an Arab, nor for a white person over a black person, nor for a black person over a white person, except through piety. In our multinational and multi-confessional homeland, we are accustomed to good neighborly relations: our people share each other’s joys and sorrows, regardless of their national affiliations.
Moreover, we in Russia have learned well the lessons of our own history — the struggle against religion has irreversible negative consequences. Of course, we are concerned about the situation that has arisen in China, especially since it directly affects our compatriots. But we hope that the authorities of this great country will remember the wisdom of their ancient culture. A close neighbor is better than a distant relative,» as the saying goes. China is the homeland of many Muslims, and Islam is a religion of tranquility, security and peace, embodying the greatest humanistic potential and compassion. We, the Muslims of Russia, must pray sincerely for the welfare of our fellow believers in China. There is one who can protect us all — our Creator and Lord.
Thus, if the position of Ashirov, who opposed his leader, could still be explained by his typical «radicalism,» the statements of Gainutdin, who is considered a «radical» in the circles of the Russian Orthodox Church, cause obvious confusion against the background of loyalty to the Kremlin. In an attempt to clarify the situation, another deputy chairman of the SMR, Rushan Abbiasov, tried to comment on it on his Instagram. And at first he even seemed to succeed: «In recent days, the media and social networks have been actively discussing the interview of the spiritual leader of Russian Muslims, Mufti Sheikh Ravil Gainutdin, in which the issue of the current situation of Muslims in the People’s Republic of China was raised. I would like to remind you that the interview was about the situation of the Muslim community represented by the Association of Muslims of China. However, the interpreters of the Mufti’s words mix up very different stories of modern life in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), where Muslims are most densely represented in China. The interview was exclusively about the religious sphere,» he began to interpret his leader’s words. However, instead of concluding that Gainutdin’s words did not apply to the Uyghurs, he finally burst out saying that the mufti was intelligent and experienced and knew better, while we were «rumor-mongers» who were only causing fitna: «Mufti Sheikh Ravil Gainutdin’s many years of experience, his knowledge of the broad context of state-religion relations, his regular trips to China, and his contacts with local Muslims provide a much more objective assessment of the situation than the emotional statements of public figures who, for quite understandable reasons, distort the facts. » In other words, Mr. Abbiasov wants us to assume that Gainutdin’s «objective assessment» of the situation in East Turkistan (Xinjiang) outweighs the testimony of thousands of Uyghurs who managed to escape from Chinese concentration camps. But what about the fact that even his closest comrade-in-arms within the SMR, Mufti Nafigulla Ashirov, openly disagrees with him? Moreover, it is worth noting that the assessment according to which there are problems only for Uyghurs in China (although Abbiasov eventually stumbled upon the fact that everything is fine for them too), while other Muslims live well there, has been outdated for several years. Our website and other Islamic and non-Islamic media, citing local sources, have repeatedly reported on the tightening screws against other ethno-religious communities in China in recent years: Kazakhs, Tatars, and even Chinese People of the Book — Christians whom the Communist regime treats as an alien element, just like Muslims. And all of this began literally in the last few years, as did the escalation of repression against Uighur Muslims to a fundamentally new level. If Ravil Gainutdin did not know about this, because he was in control of the situation before these events began, it would be necessary to make it clear. However, the insistence of his lawyers like Abbiasov gives the impression that the favor of distant Chinese Communists is more important to him than the opinion of Russian Muslims, of whom he is trying to position himself as a leader. Not to mention the satisfaction and wrath of Allah, who hears the cries of the oppressed against tyrants and their accomplices.