Experts criticize law banning to recognize texts of sacred books as extremist

The draft law prohibiting recognizing as extremist materials the contents of the Bible, the Koran, the Torah and the Kanjur, adopted by the State Duma, will not affect the existing legal practice in the country. This opinion has been expressed by experts, interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot".

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on October 14, Russian President Vladimir Putin introduced to the lower house of the parliament a draft law banning to recognize the texts of the sacred books as extremist materials. On November 18, the law was approved by the Russian Federation Council.

Vitaly Zoubenko, an advocate of the Advocates' Association "Agora", associates the adoption of the law with the legal practice and treats it as a reaction to the tightening of checks to reveal extremist activities.

According to Vitaly Zoubenko, Russia has developed a system, allowing recognizing a text as extremist on the basis of the fragments taken out of context; however, it "has nothing in common with extremism."

Damir Gainutdinov, a legal analyst of the Advocates' Association "Agora", believes the law envisages only the original texts of the sacred books without comments to them.

He suggests that the courts will take into account the position of religious organizations concerning whether they recognize a text of the particular translation of the sacred book as canonical.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.