News & Comment
The War of Attrition

News:

On May 26, 2018 there was the next meeting of the Public Movement "Crimean solidarity". This was the first meeting that took place without Server Mustafayev, a founder and coordinator of the movement who was arrested on 21st May and charged with the involvement in Hizb ut Tahrir.

The arrest of the activist of the "Crimean solidarity" Server Mustafayev "will not affect the work of the association". This was stated by the Crimean lawyer Emil Kurbedinov at the regular meeting of the "Crimean solidarity" in Simferopol on May 26, the correspondent of Crimea. Reality reports.

"What has happened will not become a reason for "Crimean solidarity" not to meet and fight for the rights of the people. On the contrary, it will strengthen and unite people," – Kurbadinov said. (Source: https://ru.krymr.com/a/news/29252062.html)

Comment:

It is well known that after the annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014, the Muslims of Crimea, the Crimean Tatars are again facing with the repressions from the descendants of the tsarist and communist regimes. After 23 years of relative calm in the period when the Crimea was a part of Ukraine, today's behavior of the new "Crimean authorities" fully corresponds to the way that the Muslims of Crimea were practiced for more than two centuries since the annexation of the Crimean Khanate by Russia in 1783.

The Crimean Muslims, the Crimean Tatars united in the public initiative "Crimean solidarity", which at the beginning consisted of the relatives of the detainees, and after uniting in its ranks all those indifferent to the repression of Russia against the innocent people in the Crimea.

After that, the Russian repressive machine took up the "Crimean Solidarity". Since the autumn of 2017 several searches took place in the homes of activists of this social movement. In the autumn of 2017 Suleiman (Marlen) Asanov and Timur Ibragimov were detained. In March 2018 Nariman Memediminov was arrested. On May 21, the founder and coordinator of the "Crimean solidarity" Server Mustafayev was arrested.

What we see now in the Crimea is nothing more than a war of attrition between the Russian repressive machine and the Crimean Muslims, the Crimean Tatars. Immediately after the annexation of the Crimea, Russian security forces faced an asymmetric response from the Crimean Tatars to the repressions practiced by Russia. The nonviolent struggle, which Islam imputes in such situations, has become a real headache for Russian special services with a rich experience in provoking Muslims through repression to an armed response, after which they skillfully crack down on those who opposed with the help of their ruthless military machine.

The Crimean Tatars have a wealth of experience in nonviolent political struggle. Many people remember the 70s and 80s of the last century, when the idea of returning to Crimea united all the Crimean Tatars and allowed them to oppose openly to one of the largest superpower of that time – the USSR.

Today, again, the Muslims of Crimea, the Crimean Tatars are facing the criminal successor of the USSR – modern Russia. But from the last century the situation is different for the better in two aspects.

The first, modern Russia, despite all its false bravado and saber-rattling, is nothing more than a miserable likeness of the USSR. Modern Russia, despite its unlimited ambitions suffers from a lack of ideas that would allow it to lead other nations around the world. As a consequence, today, this state is not able to consolidate even its own multinational population, being exhausted from the inferiority complex inherent in it for the last centuries.

The second, and most important, today's unification of the Crimean Tatars occurs on the basis of the pure Islamic ideas and this position is qualitatively different from the last century, when the union took place on a mixture of nationalism, patriotism, Islam, democracy and even communism. Today, the backbone of the oppression of the tyrant is God-fearing youth brought up on the pure Islam, which unites its sincerity and passion with the wisdom and political experience of the older generation.

This Islamic youth, that draws its strength from the following words of Allah Almighty:

﴿الَّذِينَ قَالَ لَهُمُ النَّاسُ إِنَّ النَّاسَ قَدْ جَمَعُوا لَكُمْ فَاخْشَوْهُمْ فَزَادَهُمْ إِيمَانًا وَقَالُوا حَسْبُنَا اللَّهُ وَنِعْمَ الْوَكِيلُ﴾

“Those to whom hypocrites said, "Indeed, the people have gathered against you, so fear them." But it [merely] increased them in faith, and they said, "Sufficient for us is Allah, and [He is] the best Disposer of affairs.” [3:173].

And that's why the Muslims of Crimea, the Crimean Tatars will consolidate around the correctness, and the criminal Russia will have to face a powerful wave of nonviolent protest, which will surpass the strength, correctness and sincerity of the movement, the witness of which we were in the 70s and 80s of the last century.

This war of attrition by the will of Allah will end with the fact that modern Russia, the modern pharaoh, will share the fate of the USSR, because the Muslims of the whole world and the Crimean Tatars as part of the great Islamic Ummah are on the rise, unlike the modern Russia, the leadership of which, deprived of its ideological foundation, has become a bunch of criminals, afflicted by a complex of inferiority and insult to the whole world.

We pray to Allah that the Muslims of Crimea, the Crimean Tatars, consolidate around the idea of Islam, since it is the only right idea, and also corresponds to their ideological and cultural heritage.

﴿إِنَّا لَنَنْصُرُ رُسُلَنَا وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا فِي الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا وَيَوْمَ يَقُومُ الْأَشْهَادُ﴾

"Indeed, We will support Our messengers and those who believe during the life of this world and on the Day when the witnesses will stand." [40:51]

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Fazil Amzaev
Head of the Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir in Ukraine