SAKHALIN COURT RECEIVES NEW APPEALS REGARDING BOOK "PRAYER TO GOD"
Interfax-Religiia, 5 October 2015
New appeals have reached the court in South Sakhalinsk regarding the book "Prayer to God: its Significance and Place in Islam."
"Besides the appeals from the head of the Chechen republic and the prosecutor's office of South Sakhalinsk, the court has received several more appeals, including from the Council of Muftis of Russia, from one of the reviewers of the book "Prayer to God", and from other persons. One of the last complaints from out-of-town came by fax and the arrival of the original is awaited, after which all appeals, along with the materials of the case, will be transmitted to Sakhalin provincial court," Interfax was told at the city court.
It was previously reported that the judge of the South Sakhalinsk city court, Natalia Perchenko, ruled the book "Prayer to God" to be extremist material on 12 August, on the basis of a lawsuit from Prosecutor Tatiana Bilobrovets. The basis for this was "Al-Fatiha" and other suras of the Quran. In particular, quotations from the Quran were found to be extremist: "It is you we worship and to you we pray for help" (Al-Fatiha, sura 1, ayah [verse] 5), "Do not invoke anyone along with Allah" (Al-Jinn, sura 72, ayah 18).
On his part, the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, subjected N. Perchenko and T. Biloborovets to sharp criticism, calling them in his notice on Instagram "national traitors" and "shaitans," and he also reported that he had ordered the preparation of an appeal to overturn this decision. This was followed by a statement of an official representative of the office of the prosecutor general of the RF, Marina Gridnevaya, about the impermissibility of insulting judges and prosecutors.
Meanwhile, according to the chairman of the South Sakhalinsk city court, the decision to find the indicated book to be extremist material is still not legally in force and may be examined only by an appellate court. (tr. by PDS, posted 6 October 2015)
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