According to the decision of the so-called “court”, the occupiers closed an Islamic school in the Simferopol district of Crimea. The school operated independently of the so-called “Spiritual Administration of the Muslims of Crimea and Sevastopol” (DUMK). The official reason for the closure is allegedly “propaganda of the ideology of Habashism.”

This is reported by the Representation of the President of Ukraine in the ARC.

These actions of the occupation administration are part of a policy of persecution on religious and ethnic grounds. Of the 2,220 religious organizations operating in Crimea as of 2014, only 932 remained by January 2024. This reduction is the result of the illegal introduction of Russian legislation, systemic pressure on religious leaders, and the persecution of religious communities that refuse to cooperate with the occupation administration.

Special pressure is exerted through the Kremlin-controlled mufti, created with the support of security forces under pressure on the Crimean Mufti Emirali Ablayev. This structure, together with the occupation “law enforcement agencies”, is trying to completely subordinate the activities of mosques in Crimea to the interests of the occupation administration. Independent Muslim communities and authoritative religious figures who refuse to support the occupiers face persecution on religious and political grounds.

According to the Kremlin-loyal Muftiate, at the beginning of 2023 there were only 10 mosques left in Crimea that are not under its control. The so-called “deputy mufti” Ayder Ismailov directly stated that their liquidation is carried out with the assistance of the “law enforcement agencies” of the occupation administration.

Crimean Tatars, as an indigenous people of Ukraine, systematically become objects of repression, because they are considered historically disloyal to Moscow. According to the Office of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, in January 2024 alone, more than 100 cases of persecution of Crimean Tatars on religious grounds were recorded.