Russian Muslim Died in Prison

It became known about the death of one of the active Muslims of the Kaliningrad region - Artur Rusyaev. He defended the right of the Islamic community of the city and the region to have a mosque, for which he fell under the rink of the repressive machine of the Russian state. According to the official version, the cause of the death was a heart attack. But taking into account how Russia treats Islam and Muslims, and especially active ones, and also taking into account the recently published Gulagu.net resource, what is happening in the “correctional” institutions of Russia, it is difficult to believe in this.

Artur Rusyaev and his family lived in the Chernyakhovsky district of the region - 90 kilometers from Kaliningrad. By nationality - Russian, Artur Rusyaev adopted Islam a few years ago. In the village of Svoboda, Rusyaev bought 50 hectares of land and decided to develop agro-tourism: in order to organize employment placements for Muslims, and spend the profit on the needs of the Muslim community and charity. He built several buildings and used one of them as a mosque. Then he legally formalized the Muslim community "Irshad", he himself became its chairman. Due to the fact that the local authorities did not allow Muslims to build mosques, it was the only mosque in the district, therefore, people from all over the region came to pray at Rusyaev's house.

On May 22, 2019, the building of the entrepreneur’s house of worship with all other buildings was demolished by an illegal and unreasonable court decision as an illegal building even before the appealed decision came into force.

Rusyaev did not give up and continued the struggle, seeking permission to build a mosque so that the Muslim community would have the opportunity to perform collective prayers in the House of Allah. He turned to the help of a lawyer Dagir Khasavov, who was soon imprisoned on a fabricated criminal case against him.

Next Rusyaev was planted with drugs, he was arrested, after which the Russian “justice” sentenced him to four and a half years in prison. Representatives of the criminal regime in uniform and robes did not even try to make this performance believable. After all, everyone knows the attitude of Muslims to the drugs. Yes, and the sporty appearance of Rusyaev, who led a healthy lifestyle, clearly indicates that this person is far from drugs and anything like that.

Rusyaev repeatedly applied to the Investigative Committee and stated that the drugs had been planted on him. In the Investigative Committee, as expected, they answered that “the facts set forth in his statement did not find their confirmation” - it was refused to initiate a criminal case against the police officers.

Lawyer Yakushevich also noted that Rusyaev had previously reported the threats from the law enforcement officers that he received in 2019 and 2020. For this reason, he applied to the Investigative Committee, but the Investigative Committee refused to initiate a case. The Investigative Committee, the prosecutor's office, the judiciary, all the special services and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia are far from law enforcement agencies, but stand guard over the dictatorial regime and are a repressive machine against the enemies of the system. And it has been at war with Islam for a long time.

The role of representatives of the official clergy in this whole story is also predictable. It became known that from the already imprisoned Rusyaev, it sought to rewrite the building he had built as a mosque for the local Spiritual Administration of Muslims.

Rusyaev did not leave the call and spread of Islam, the care and protection of Muslims in the colony, striving for them to have the same rights as the rest of the prisoners. For this, he was repeatedly placed in a punishment cell. Of course, given all this, it's hard to believe that his death was non-violent. Moreover, after the failure to liquidate the Russian opposition leader Navalny, it became obvious that the Russian special services have many ways to kill a person in such a way that it looks like a natural death.

This case is far from the only one in the territory of today's Russia. Hundreds of Muslims are languishing in prisons on trumped-up charges for their adherence to Islam. Such is the essence of Russia and such is its essence in relation to Muslims who fell under the power of its occupation into the sphere of imperial ambitions. The hatred of this system is even stronger towards the Russians who converted to Islam. This is understandable: the assimilation policy of the Russian government towards Muslims did not give the expected results - they did not forget their religion and culture and were able to maintain their identity at the cost of huge sacrifices and continue to resist aggressive Russification and Christianization. And, on the contrary, despite the Islamophobia in Russian society, as a result of the mass anti-Islamic propaganda of the Russian media, even representatives of the so-called “state-forming” people accept Islam and stand firm on it.

Russia, admits the so-called “traditional Islam” in regions where the indigenous population is Muslim. However, it severely suppresses even the construction of mosques in the Russian regions. At the same time, in Russia, the construction of Orthodox churches is going on at a rate of three churches per day.

It was narrated from Abu Burd that he heard his father narrate that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: «ثَلاَثَةٌ يُؤْتَوْنَ أَجْرَهُمْ مَرَّتَيْنِ: الرَّجُلُ تَكُونُ لَهُ الأَمَةُ، فَيُعَلِّمُهَا فَيُحْسِنُ تَعْلِيمَهَا، وَيُؤَدِّبُهَا فَيُحْسِنُ أَدَبَهَا، ثُمَّ يُعْتِقُهَا فَيَتَزَوَّجُهَا فَلَهُ أَجْرَانِ، وَمُؤْمِنُ أَهْلِ الكِتَابِ، الَّذِي كَانَ مُؤْمِنًا، ثُمَّ آمَنَ بِالنَّبِيِّ ﷺ، فَلَهُ أَجْرَانِ، وَالعَبْدُ الَّذِي يُؤَدِّي حَقَّ اللَّهِ، وَيَنْصَحُ لِسَيِّدِهِ»، ثُمَّ قَالَ الشَّعْبِيُّ: «وَأَعْطَيْتُكَهَا بِغَيْرِ شَيْءٍ وَقَدْ كَانَ الرَّجُلُ يَرْحَلُ فِي أَهْوَنَ مِنْهَا إِلَى المَدِينَةِ»“Three groups of people - their reward will be doubled: (the first of them is) a person from among the people of the book who believed in his prophet (Isa or Musa) and got to know me, and then believed in me and followed me ... ” (Bukhari).

Jabir ibn ‘Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) also reported that the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, said: «مَنْ بَنَى مَسْجِدًا لِلَّهِ كَمَفْحَصِ قَطَاةٍ أَوْ أَصْغَرَ بَنَى اللَّهُ لَهُ بَيْتًا فِى الْجَنَّةِ»“Whoever builds a mosque for the sake of Allah (even the size) of a partridge's nest or smaller than that, Allah will build a house in Paradise”.

May the Almighty forgive our brother, grant him an honorable place in Paradise and make him an example for Muslims.

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Shaikhetdin Abdullah