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As Moscow further integrates with China and its methods of repression, Russia has announced it will develop a re-education center for Muslims of a certain sect in the Crimean peninsula, based on the model developed in China for ‘rehabilitation’, where over one million Uighers are currently interred in concentration camps.
Russian security agents detained dozens of people in Simferopol last week on suspicion of being members of Hizb ut-Tahrir, a pan-Islamist group banned within Russia. Russia’s human rights ombudsperson vowed last month to review the legality of a 2003 court order labeling Hizb ut-Tahrir a terrorist organization, reported The Moscow Times.
“A rehabilitation center will be established … to save those trapped in the extremist religious sect,” Ruslan Balbek, a member of the State Duma’s Social and Religious Organizations Committee told the state-run RIA Novosti news agency.
He offered to exonerate those who pass the rehabilitation course, saying “a path to recovery will open to those who sincerely repent and sever ties with extremist religious sects.”
China has also set up a policy of ‘new family members’ to come live with certain people who are members of banned groups; these ‘monitors’ will report any religious violations or thought crimes to Beijing security forces.
Russia continues to pass legislation to censor the internet of ideas and thoughts it does not approve of. 15,000 people demonstrated across the country last month in support of internet freedom.
