On October 6, 2013, the “Inter” Channel aired the “Weak Specific” show digest where “hizb-ut-Tahrir”, their activities and their future conference in Simferopol was one of the plots. The editors did not limit themselves with providing background information, but depicted Crimea as a hotspot, soon-to-become “Ukrainian Chechnya”. The reaction of Religious Administration of Muslims of Ukraine “Umma” resulted in a note of protest with listed remarks for the channel.
In particular, Mufti of RAMU “Umma” Said Ismagilov noted that the Media make great commotion on “Islamic extremism” out of nothing, which, at the same time, can result in acts of hostility towards Muslims.
“Ukrainian Muslims consider it’s most vexatious to see the righ-rated TV-Channel supporting this negative trend. The storyline was meant to tell about Hizb-ut-Tahrir activities, and, of course, they gave a detailed view of the party’s goals. At the same time, the video reflected upon the reputation of Ukrainian Muslims in general, and, which is worse, gave start to islamophobic sentiments,” the Mufti said.
Moreover, demonstrating mosques and praying people within a framework of an extremism-related video reflects upon the reputation of Ukrainian Muslims in general.
“Linking religion with radicalism and extremism is inadmissible. The Holy Book of Islam and mosques existed ages before even the term “extremist” was invented; they have been symbols of Islamic tradition for fourteen centuries. From now on, the TV-audience associates praying people and people reading the Qur’an with extremists, which, in turn, provokes inter-ethnic conflicts and religious discrimination. The latter, as we all well know, is an illegal act.”
Mufti Said Ismagilov stressed that RAMU “Umma” neither supports nor approves Hizb-ut-Tahrir and their methods and “has repeatedly condemned provocations by their members”; the risk of rising Islamophobia in Ukraine, however, is too high to stand aside and ignore such TV-digests.
In his video message the Mufti, on behalf of Ukrainian Muslims, called the TV-Channel for further promotion of peace and reconciliation between confessions and ethnic groups instead of provoking conflicts and aggression against some or other community.
