There is a direct attack on the Ukraine`s Muslim communities. Several Muslim leaders of Ukraine have made such or similar statements.
Yesterday the head of one of the largest public associations of Ukrainian Muslims, the chairman of CSUAUA “Alraid” Seyran Aryfov published a video message on his Facebook page. According to him, a planned informational campaign has started in Ukraine to discredit and slander this organization.
— Almost simultaneously, and on several dubious sources, publications that incite religious and inter-ethnic discord in society appeared, - says Seyran Aryfov. - Their authors claim “Alraid” to be a terror organization proscribed throughout the world.
We refer to the materials published at least on two Ukrainian "dump" websites such as "Antikor" and From-Ua. Both websites published texts in Russian under the heading «Alraid: Why a terror organization under the command of Bassil Muhammad Marie freely operates in Ukraine».
In his video message Seyran Aryfov draws attention to a dubious reputation of these sites and points out that the article posted on them raises a lot of questions, contains many inconsistencies, false facts, blatant lies and manipulations.
— On the Internet you can find a lot of feedback from organizations and people demanding these sites to be called to account for spreading lies, fake and misinformation, - says the head of “Alraid”. — These "waste tanks", working in the best traditions of Russian propaganda machine, have long been known as unreliable sources.
Even a shallow analysis confirms the words of Seyran Aryfov. Basil Mareei hasn`t been the head of "Alraid'' for several years now, the authors have even made a mistake in spelling his surname. And the material itself, despite the name, is mainly devoted to his personality rather than to the activities of the organization. The abovementioned sites are indeed known in Ukraine as sources that spread false information. And this publication is a translated version of the text that had previously appeared on a little-known resource Theunfilteredlens.org.
According to Seyran Aryfov, the accusations, that "Alraid" has relation to terrorism, have been made before. Once there even was a case when the organization made its offenders withdraw their accusation and compensate for moral damage. The current attack was made by means of "leaking" misleading information and the head of the association connects it, among other things, with the information war of Russia against Ukraine.
— In their propaganda campaign against Ukraine, the Russian Federation also strikes at the Ukrainian followers of Islam. And these strikes are mainly aimed at those who declared about their pro-Ukrainian patriotic position from the very beginning of Russia's aggression. Thus, through dubious and "venal" resources, the aggressor is also trying to provoke an internal inter-religious conflict in Ukrainian society.
Previously, publications with similar accusations against "Alraid", as well as other associations of Ukrainian Muslims, often appeared on Russian propaganda resources. And this fact confirms the opinion of one of the leaders of the Ukrainian Muslim community.
Mufti of the Religious Administration of Muslims of Ukraine Said Ismagilov agrees on the planned nature of the current charges.
— The attack is aimed not only at the Islamic organizations of Ukraine, but also at the public authorities themselves — they are actually being accused of incompetence, — says sheikh Said.
— The aim of such hoax is clear -- to incite Islamophobia, provoke internal conflicts in the country and cast doubts on the competence of Ukrainian law-enforcement authorities. This leads to the weakening of the state.
It is worth noting that these events have peculiarly coincided with the incident in which another Ukrainian mufti was involved. It was Ayder Rustemov, the head of Spiritual Direction of the Muslims of Crimea.
Two days ago, the car in which Mufti was travelling was being persecuted by two cars with young people of athletic build. Ayder Rustemov posted this on his Facebook page. According to the mufti, there were five persecutors at the very least, they spoke Russian without a noticeable accent and they were pursuing his car for at least six hours. «All facts have been reported on to police authorities and state security agencies» — with these words Ayder Rustemov finishes his post.
All these organizations - CSUAUA “Alraid”, RAMU "Ummah" and RAMC are known for their principled pro-Ukrainian ground and the support for the territorial integrity of Ukraine. Considering all this, the idea of the Russian "trace" looks even more convincing. Therefore, everyone who is involved in this, such as state and law-enforcement authorities and associations of patriotic Ukrainian Muslims, should be prepared for the further provocations and fakes.
