Religious literature confiscated in Dagestan

On April 18, 2007, in "Sunna" shop, where mainly Islamic literature is sold, an unknown employee of the Leninskiy ROVD of Makhachkala, capital of Dagestan, made a search and confiscation of goods. Makhmud Kurbanov, the shop owner, said to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that he had been told that the withdrawn literature and laser disks would be further sent to the respective state examination agencies to be checked for the presence "of Wahhabite propaganda and appeals to kindling inter-religious and interethnic enmity." The market value of confiscated goods makes about 5,000 roubles.

According to the shop owner, this confiscation is far from being the first one, since last year two withdrawal acts under similar motivation were undertaken by the workers of the Department for Fighting Extremism and Criminal Terrorism of the Dagestan MIA. So far, Mr. Kurbanov has not received any expert's judgement, none of the "temporarily confiscated" goods have been returned. Currently, his financial losses total to over 25,000 roubles.

In Kurbanov's opinion, this steadfast attention to his commercial activity is largely explained by the actions of official clergy representatives who have tagged the shop as a Wahhabite one.