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Banned Books List Expanded Again
The latest, third, list of banned extremist publications (periodicals, book and films) was issued on Saturday by the Federal Registration Service (Rosregistratsia). With 61 entries, the new list is twice as large as the previous one. The first version of the list was compiled in July of this year and contained 14 titles. All of the publications are of a fascist, ultranationalist or ultrareligious nature.
The list of banned publications has upset both radicals and human rights activists. Eduard Limonov, writer and head of the banned National Bolshevik organization, called the list “a form of censorship that is prohibited by the Constitution of the Russian Federation.” Lev Ponomarev, head of the movement For Human Rights, called it a step toward “persecution on political grounds.”
Although the list contains Russian nationalist publications, such as the newspaper Divizia (Military Division) in Russkoe Prikamye and Za Rus (For Russia) in Novorossiisk, 13 publications are by the same author: Said Nursi. “Said Nursi preached the most tolerant form of Islam,”said Nafigula Ashirov, cochairman of the Council of Muftis of Russia. A scholarly council from the Al-Azkhar University in Cairo, the Turkish Ministry of Muslim Affairs and the European Council for Fatwa Research have also come to the author's defense.
Ashirov sees the beginning of a new wave of anti-Muslim sentiment in Russia. “We know of several cases of persecution for reading Islamic books in Novosibirsk and Naberezhnye Chelny,” he said. He also recalled that “Muslim organizations have supported the policies of the president, approved his choice of successor and the overwhelming number of Muslims in the Russian regions voted for United Russia.” Possession or distribution of extremist material is punishable by up to five years in prison in Russia.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Dec. 17, 2007
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