Commenting on the initial news of Varvara Karaulova’s early release, we wrote about the unexpected humanity of this decision in today’s times. Unfortunately, upon closer examination, it turned out to be quite typical of the current system. It was decided to release Varvara Karaulova only after she renounced not only her sympathies for ISIS (which would be logical from the point of view of public security), but also Islam itself. Even before Karaulova’s release, the Islamophobic «Russia Today» published an interview with her spiritual advisor — Archpriest Alexey Uminsky (pictured), who converted her to Orthodoxy first in pre-trial detention and then in the penal colony. Then, after her release, she herself announced that she was going home to celebrate Orthodox Easter, and given the emphasis on this in state propaganda, it is highly likely that she was symbolically released on this Orthodox holiday.
Let’s emphasize this right away. We do not live in a state where Sharia law is fully enforced, but rather in a secular socio-political space. Therefore, although the news of Karaulova’s departure from Islam, if she ever was in it (according to the words of her Orthodox spiritual advisor, she apparently was not), saddens us as Muslims, we do not question the fact that in a secular state, she or any other person is free to choose their religion or not to have one.
Therefore, the political problem is not that Karaulova converted from Islam to Orthodoxy, but that she did so while being deprived of her freedom and was only released afterwards. Because we know very well that in these places there is a deliberate policy to force Russians and representatives of other non-Muslim nations who have embraced Islam to renounce it, to the point where such people are forced to write statements about it. Therefore, today we cannot expect humanity towards prisoners who have accepted Islam and have not renounced it, even if they have changed their political views in favor of moderation.
In words, representatives of the state claim that both orthodoxy and traditional Islam are acceptable to them, and only «radical Islam,» «Wahhabism,» and the like are unacceptable. In reality, however, we see that the «treatment of Karaulova from extremism» was entrusted not to a representative of «traditional Islam», even if they are the most loyal to the authorities, but to an Orthodox spiritual advisor. And she was released only after she announced her conversion or return to Orthodoxy. The same Islamophobic «Russia Today», while broadcasting Karaulova’s press conference, emphasized the following words in bold letters: «…Islam is not for me, and unfortunately Islam came into my life under pressure.»
In other words, both actual state policy and state propaganda in the religious sphere once again show us that all talk of religious freedom is just playing to the gallery in a country where the conversion of ethnic Muslims to Orthodoxy is actively encouraged, while Russians who have embraced Islam are perceived as enemies by default.
* Forbidden in the Russian Federation