Faced with an unprecedented mobilization of the country’s media community in defense of journalist Ivan Golunov, the authorities, through the voice of Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev, announced the termination of the criminal case against him and his release from house arrest. In addition, the statement indicates that the head of the Interior Ministry has submitted a request to the president to dismiss those responsible for falsifying the case against the journalist — the head of the Western administrative district of the Moscow city police department, Andrei Puchkov, and the head of the drug control department of the Moscow city police department, Yuri Devyatkin. This is good news and far from ordinary. It is difficult to remember the last time when law enforcement agencies and the power structure that protects and relies on them were forced to back down and abandon their lawlessness against representatives of civil society under public pressure. This is exactly what happened to Golunov. However, it is important to understand that this remains an extremely rare exception and does not cancel the existing rules in the country — complete lawlessness and impunity for those in power, and the complete lack of rights for Russian citizens, who are de facto deprived of the rights guaranteed to them by the Russian Constitution.
Initially, when we commented on Golunov’s case, we wrote that this time Muslims should also support this journalist and not take the attitude of «we were not worried when they persecuted us, so we are not worried about their persecution now». This is wrong, among other reasons, because recently in Russia there have been movements towards lawlessness against religious activists of Muslims and national and civil movements of Muslim regions and peoples. Some (though by no means all) of those who have come to Golunov’s defense in recent days are known to us as people who help shed light on similar cases involving Muslims. Yes, undoubtedly, the level of attention to these cases varies, as does the degree of involvement of the media community in cases involving famous liberal journalists and Muslim journalists, who are subjected to much harsher pressure, including extrajudicial killings. On the other hand, it should be recognized that although Islamic civil society in Putin-Gundyaev’s Russia has been subjected to real terror, the level of activity among Muslims themselves in defending their rights and their representatives today is incomparable to what liberals demonstrate, who have much more opportunities for this.
Therefore, what happened today should not be seen by all of us as the end of the road, but only as its beginning. The way of struggle of the citizens and social forces of Russia with different religious and political convictions for the rights which are nominally guaranteed to them by the Constitution of the country and which are completely trampled upon by those who exercise unlimited power. «The Voice of Islam sincerely congratulates journalist Ivan Golunov, his friends and relatives, and the entire Russian civil society on this victory. We are glad that the case against Golunov has been dropped, especially considering that a few months ago a criminal case was filed against our editor-in-chief, Hamza Dmitry Chernomortchenko, for the activities of our website. We will present detailed information about it later, God willing, but we can say that this case was the result of the joint work of several regional offices of the FSB, which tried to use several of our publications as a basis, until they absurdly accused him of justifying terrorism, namely the banned ISIL in the Russian Federation, based on an article about the reasons for the fall of Aleppo. We also know Muslim journalists and human rights activists who are currently feeling the threat of falsification of criminal cases against them. There is no need to talk about those who have already been imprisoned, killed, kidnapped or expelled from the country.
So, let Golunov’s release be an inspiring example for all of us — both Muslims and other citizens of Russia. The struggle is just beginning, and we have a lot of work ahead of us. Victory can only be truly celebrated when it is successfully achieved.