Muftis working for Russia's FSB perform tasks to mobilize Muslim population for war: leader of Ukrainian Muslims
Many Russian muftis spoke in support of Russian aggression against Ukraine. The Mufti of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Ukraine "Umma" Said Ismagilov in an interview with "RBC-Ukraine" explained that the maximum that Russian muftis who do not support armed aggression now allow themselves is to remain silent.
At the same time, he notes that the vast majority of well-known Muslim figures (including the Supreme Mufti of Russia and the head of the Central Spiritual Administration of Russia Talgat Tajuddin, the Mufti of Chechnya Salah Mezhiev, Albir Krganov and others) openly support and bless this war, calling the Muslims of the Russian Federation to war.
"Some agreed before they called it "jihad" - that this is allegedly a war on the way of Almighty Allah against Ukraine. The mufti of Chechnya constantly pedals this topic," says Said Ismagilov.
He believes that it is possible to draw a certain parallel with the Russian Orthodox Church, which has become a full-fledged spiritual weapon of the Kremlin - as loyal as possible, justifying absolutely all the actions of the authorities, sometimes even a steam locomotive running ahead. That is, these Muslim organizations in Russia have actually turned into the same department of religious affairs under the Administration of President Putin, only not for Orthodox, but for Muslims.
"The fact is that immediately after Putin's first arrival as president, in the 2000s, the process of taking control of all Muslim spiritual administrations in Russia was launched. Now all the muftis there are either FSB employees or cooperate with the FSB. In any case, they are under strict control. And they continue the political line of the Kremlin," explains Said Ismagilov.
The Ukrainian mufti calls absolutely absurd from the point of view of Islam the statements of his Russian "colleagues" that Russia's war against Ukraine is allegedly jihad, allegedly a war that is being done for the sake of Almighty Allah.
"It's absolutely complete marasmus. In the Muslim world, many authoritative spiritual leaders not only condemned Russia's aggression - they sided with Ukraine. It turns out that Russian Muslim leaders, expressing such a position, not only contradict the Muslim world - they actually distort Islam. Because they substitute the concept of just war, fair protection against aggression with some slogans that they should liberate Ukraine from "Nazis", "fascists", "Banderites" and someone else. At the same time, I think they understand perfectly well that they are lying. But they all want to serve the authorities and show their maximum loyalty, usefulness. And at the same time, they fulfill the task of mobilizing the Muslim population for this war," says Said Ismagilov.
He emphasizes that now the main "cannon fodder" is not the central regions of Russia. After all, the most deaths are in Dagestan.
"They throw the most people from the Far East, Dagestan, Tatarstan, Buryatia. That is, these are the outskirts of Russia, where the standard of living is low, where there is a poorly educated and low-income population. And if we take purely Muslim regions like the North Caucasus, then there, of course, the word of the spiritual leader is authoritative. And therefore, when the mufti declares and convinces the believers that they are allegedly waging a good war for the sake of Almighty Allah, people from some mountain villages from some Rutul or Tabasaran districts quite think to themselves: "once the mufti said, he can't talk nonsense," explains Said Ismagilov.
He notes that Russian muftis play a mobilization role, persuading ordinary Muslims to sign contracts, go to war, motivating that this is a "good cause".