Press Release
A Fine for a Symbol of Islam

On 7 November 2014 on the "Portal of forensic enquiry and law" (www.ceur.ru), it was reported that the resident of Kazan Il'nar Zyalilov was subjected to an administrative punishment for sitting in his own car the flags with Shahada - a testimony of Islamic belief. The representatives of the law enforcement officials saw in his actions the intention to demonstrate publicly a symbol of the international Islamic political party "Hizb ut Tahrir al Islami".

The Soviet District Court of Kazan found Zyalilov guilty under Part 1 Article 20.3 Code of Administrative Offences (public demonstration of the attributes and symbols of extremist organizations) and fined him. The portal also rightly pointed out that "Russia is the only country that considers the Islamic Party of Liberation to be a terrorist".

For our part, we want to point out the absurdity of the court's decision. The flags in question are Islamic on which the evidences from the Prophet Muhammad's (saw) Seerah clearly indicate. Anyone who refers to Shariah texts describing the flags of Islam can verify the similarity of their descriptions with the flags found in the Muslim's car.

The flags of Islam belong to all Muslims and neither Hizb ut Tahrir nor any other group ever profess that they be their own attribute. And it is natural that the Islamic party as Hizb ut Tahrir use the flags, and it is natural that a Muslim has them. For this reason, the decision of Kazan court is nothing but a struggle of the Islamic symbols and another attempt to discredit the party of Hizb ut Tahrir.

Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir

in Russia