Grozny Court Bans Anti-Muslim Film

The St. Petersburg Times

Published: September 28, 2012 (Issue # 1728)

Stanislav Gaiduk / Wikimedia Commons A Grozny court ruled that the film “Innocence of Muslims” could destabilize Chechnya, which is majority Muslim. Above, a mosque in Grozny.

MOSCOW — A court in the Chechen capital Grozny has declared extremist an anti-Muslim video that has sparked violent protests in North Africa and the Middle East. The court ruling means that the film is now banned nationwide.

Leninsky District Court in Grozny has declared the film extremist, Chechen press minister Murat Tagiyev told RIA-Novosti on Friday.

Under Russian law, a work is banned across the country after being declared extremist by a single court.

At the request of prosecutors, Internet providers in multiple regions including Omsk, Volgograd and the republic of Chechnya had in recent weeks blocked access to YouTube and other websites on which the "Innocence of Muslims" film was available.

The video clip, a crude film trailer made in the U.S. that portrays the Muslim prophet Mohammed as lecherous and selfish, has triggered violent demonstrations at U.S. embassies in countries including Egypt and Libya.

Tagiyev, the Chechen press minister, said the Leninsky District Court ruling echoed concerns expressed by many senior Russian officials about the potential for violence over the film in Russia, which has millions of Muslim citizens.

"A failure to take necessary measures to prevent the uncontrolled spread of a socially dangerous, provocative video that insults religious beliefs could cause serious negative consequences," Tagiyev said, summarizing the court's ruling.

The court noted that the film could destabilize Chechnya, the vast majority of whose citizens are Muslim, Tagiyev said. A number of Internet providers in Chechnya on Thursday blocked access to YouTube and several other websites on which the video was available.

It was unclear what specific measures would be required of Internet providers to block access to the film. Earlier this month Communications and Press Minister Nikolai Nikiforov said that there would be no countrywide blackout of YouTube because of the film and that only the video itself would be blocked on the video-sharing site if declared extremist.