The domestic security agency of Russia (FSB) arrested a Muslim woman, Sidikova Oomidjan Ganevna (b. 1976) on the morning of 19 May 2011 in Moscow . They did not allow her to inform anyone of her whereabouts, and her three children – a daughter, Meerkhan (12), and two sons, Nusratullah (10) and Salahuddin (8) – were placed in an orphanage.

Earlier, on the 7 December 2010, the husband of Sidikova, Farookh Fadl Dinovic (b. 1972), was arrested upon allegations of membership with a political party, Hizb ut-Tahrir . His wife was then arrested in order to put pressure on him to confess to the allegations, which were not true. The court sentenced Sidikova to two months in prison.

We see today that Russian leaders are trying to portray Russia as a civilised nation that respects human rights, yet in reality this is how they act to achieve their objectives: by separating a mother and her children in order to force a man to confess to crimes he did not commit.

On 23 May, in the city of Ufa and its surroundings, security agencies carried out raids on homes without warrants and arrested some Muslim women from their homes.

The house of Manapova Yula Kazikhanov (b. 1984) was raided by officers of the National Security agency on 23 May 2011. Her house is apartment no. 617, 11 Moshanikova St. in the city of Ufa . They led her to 55a Kalinina St. and there threatened her with a screwdriver and awl and verbally abused her. They threatened her with the arrest of her sons as a form of pressure. They repeated all this throughout the day, whilst her baby and her infant of 5 years were left alone in the house.

The house of Elmira Minnibiva Yonnerova (b. 1985) was searched while she was eight months pregnant. She lives in Ufa on Kriliva St . The search was carried out in a way contravening the law: the address written in the legal papers was wrong and the two female witnesses used during the investigation were from the agency itself. The agents of the agency recorded everything on video in order to record the face of the sister properly. The name of employee recording was Vitslav and he focused the camera upon her. During all this, her husband, Tahir Vanisovic, and her one-year old son, Aleem, were in the apartment witnessing the actions of the agents, part of which was the trampling with their dirty feet on books that contained Quran’ic verses.

By this sort of conduct the agencies seeks to degrade the feelings of the believers.

The result of their practices appeared on the sister in the form of symptoms of pressure, increase in heart rate, and pain in the lower abdomen. The ambulance was summoned and, after examination, the doctor concluded that her condition was precarious and she may lose her child. He gave her a sedative and took her to natal hospital no. 6, located in Shaviva st, and after examination to the hospital, they refused her entry on grounds that it is full.

Caquerova Ramilva Leila, born in 1982, and having 4 small children – Zainab (6 years), Salah al-Din (4 years), Ali (2 years) and Jannat (1 year) – was put under pressure, her and her family, by the security agencies. Two cars arrived at her house at 7am on May 23, 2011 and many men exited. Among them were some women, and later it became apparent that they were witnesses over the inspection process. At this time the sister was leaving her house to go to meet her husband Albert Shakirov Zkjevic, who was sentenced to imprisonment in accordance with Article 282-1 since September 22 2010, and thus this family had already lost its breadwinner and patron. They stopped her and inspected her from all sides, and without any reason they forcibly pulled her mobile phone from her. Then they started to act according to old custom, showed her a warrant, and forced her to open the gate to enter the house. During the search for prohibited literary material they searched everything and moved everything out of its place, even the freezer in the refrigerator was not spared, despite the fact that all the books in the house were issued in this country. Still not satisfied with what they found, they began threatening to tear the panels of the walls which were made of wood. They began shouting, scaring the young children and waking them up from their sleep.

After interrogating the sister they took her to the section located in Kalenna St. , 55A, room no. 218. Then they started to talk and, in sum, they had prepared written note in which the sister’s confesses to being a fundamentalist and they wanted to force her to sign it. She ask to call a lawyer, and mentioned to them Article 51 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation , but this did not affect them. Rather, the response was a threat to imprison her and to take her children and place them in an orphanage. They began calling the management in order to find the address of the nearest orphanage, and they began waving a knife and awl at her face.

O Muslims: till when will these illegal and extra-legal practices against our wives, mothers, sisters and children continue? Till when will we remain silent and act as if nothing has happened to us? How will we answer Allah (swt) on the Day of Judgment when He asks us as to what we did to help our sisters and their children? Allah (swt) says

[وَإِنِ اسْتَنصَرُوكُمْ فِي الدِّينِ فَعَلَيْكُمُ النَّصْر]

“And if they seek your help in the deen, than it is upon you to help them”; and at this point in time our brother, his wife and their children ask of our help. The Messenger of Allah (saw) said, “A Muslim is the brother of a Muslim: he does not oppress him, nor betray him. He who assists his brother, Allah assists him, and he who relieves a Muslim of a calamity, Allah will relieve him of a calamity on the Day of Resurrection. He who conceals a Muslim, Allah will conceal him on the Day of Resurrection” (Bukhari and Muslim), and he (saw) said, “Allah continues to assist his slave, so long as he assists his brother” and he said, “A Muslim is the brother of a Muslim: he does not oppress him, nor degrade him.” (Muslim)

Thus everyone who is able to protect or assist but does not do so will be considered as having left his brother without helping him. The Messenger of Allah (saw) said, “A Muslim does not abandon another Muslim in a place where he desires his help except that Allah will abandon him in a place where he desires the help of Allah.”

It is necessary that this incident impact us, and that each one of us partakes in freeing this Muslim family, in particular the sister and her children. We know, and we have been reminded again, that without the Imam these calamities will continue and be repeated. The Messenger of Allah (saw) said, “The Imam is a shield, behind whom the people fight and by whom they are protected.” The ruler of the Muslims protects the honour of the Muslim women, as was done in the past by the Prophet with Bani Qaynuqa’ and as Khalifah Mu’tasim did by sending an army in response to the call of a Muslim woman.

Dear Muslims: you are able to assist our brothers and sisters, first by making du’a for them that they be swiftly released. Second, we must spread the news of this incident to all the Muslims. Everyone must know about it. We must inform the Muslims and draw their attention to the like of these incidents. We must draw the attention of all segments of society and the media to this incident and to the extra-legal practices of the Government. We must demand that the prominent Muslims and Muslim activists partake in solving this problem.

O Muslims: help the deen of Allah, and He will help you.

Hizb ut-Tahrir Russia
25 May 2011 CE