Faith

Here‘s Everything You Need to Know About Russia’s ‘Radical,‘ ’Bizarre’ & Reclusive Muammin Islamic ‘Cult’

KAZAN, Russia (AP) — Authorities spoke of a creepy cult living in an “eight-level ant house” dug deep into the ground, where children were kept in unheated cells and starved of daylight. A visit to the compound suggests a more ordinary reality.

A brief visit inside the compound, which provided shocking headlines around the world when police raided it and seized the children, revealed none of the elaborate underground design described by prosecutors. Nor does a police video showing rooms inside. The father of a cult member, who originally disapproved of his daughter joining the group, said he was able to visit freely and has no complaints about how members live or treat their children.

Inside Russias Radical Muammin Islamic Sect That Was Raided by Police

In this Sunday, Aug 12, 2012 photo Shamil Ibragimov, a former member of an Islamic sect, speaks to The Associated Press outside a house where members of the Islamic sect have lived in seclusion since the early 2000s outside Kazan, the capital of Russia's Volga River province of Tatarstan. (AP Photo/Nikolay Alexandrov)

The conflicting portrayals raise questions about whether authorities may have exaggerated the eccentricity of the sect, perhaps in an effort to show they are cracking down on radical Islamic groups. The spokeswoman for Kazan prosecutors did not answer repeated calls to her office and cell phones on Monday.

Police stumbled upon the bizarre sect in early August as they investigated what they described as a terrorist attack that killed a top cleric in oil-rich Tatarstan, a central Russian province where the population is about 60 percent Muslim. Officials blamed the attack on the radical Islamic groups proliferating in the region.

Police seized the 20 children living in the compound and put them in orphanages. Their parents were charged with child abuse, which prosecutors said could deprive them of custody for up to two years. Prosecutors allege that the children, who did not attend public schools, lived in conditions “unfit for humans,” in small, dark and unventilated cells dug into the earth. Health officials said the children rarely saw the light of day.

Relatives of cult members disputed that. Madganur Ziganshin, whose daughter, Ralifa Ibragimova, joined the cult over his objections, said the room where she lived with her husband and four children was not underground and had normal windows.

He also disputed claims that the children rarely saw sunshine and were not allowed to leave the property, saying they had visited both sets of grandparents and gone to summer camp, and that he visited frequently for up to three days at a time.

Inside Russias Radical Muammin Islamic Sect That Was Raided by Police

Members of an underground sect in Russia's Volga River province of Tatarstan province stand at the gate of a house outside the provincial capital, Kazan, on Wednesday, Aug. 8 (photo credit: AP/Nikolay Alexandrov)

“They pray. They are religious. But they are not junkies, drunks or bandits,” Ziganshin said in his home in the village of Bailyangar, 200 kilometers (120 miles) away. “They never abuse the kids, never beat them.”

Neighbors, however, said the children were raised to look upon others with disdain and would curse and throw stones from inside their compound.

“They consider themselves a higher race, while other people are garbage,” said Ildar Khusainov, 42, who lives in a nearby wooden house.

It was not possible to determine from a short visit to the compound or from the video taken by police the day of the raid how much, if any, of the living space lies underground.

The compound’s main, three-story house is built into the side of a steep hill. A covered passageway leads down the hill to another house, with doors on both sides. At street level, a wooden minaret topped by a tin crescent moon rises above a 2-meter (7-foot) fence. Power was cut off years ago when the sect stopped paying its utility bills. The sect now gets water from a well and uses wood and propane gas for heat.

The sect, whose members call themselves “Muammin” — Arabic for “believers” — had thousands of followers in the 1990s. But they began to drift away after the founder, Faizrakhman Satarov, declared himself the “messenger of God” and his sect to be the world’s only true Muslims. When police raided about 60 people, including the children, were living in the compound.

Ibragimova’s husband accused authorities of seizing the children and filing abuse charges as a pretext for closing down the sect. Police have not reported finding weapons or any other evidence that sect members were involved in violence.

“They want to frighten us so that we leave by ourselves, so that we disappear,” said Shamil Ibragimov, a lean 30-year-old with a thin beard. “This is immoral. This is lawlessness.”

Ibragimov was at the compound on Sunday packing his possessions. His wife suffered a miscarriage the day after the children were seized, and on Friday he sent her to her parents’ home in Bailyangar. He was preparing to join her there and hoped they would soon regain custody of their children, aged 18 months to 9 years.

He said it took him five days to locate the children in an orphanage outside Kazan. They seemed happy but “did not realize they might lose their parents forever,” their father said.

The fate of the sect’s property remains unclear. Police, accompanied by social workers and construction experts, conducted a third search last week to further assess the living conditions and decide whether the haphazardly built structures should be demolished or allowed to stand.

In many ways, conditions at the compound are typical for rural Russia. Ziganshin’s wooden house in Bailyangar, for example, has low ceilings and creaky floors, with a wood-burning stove in the kitchen for heat and cooking.

Sect leaders are enraged over the seizure of the children and the police action against their holy project, and vowed to triumph.

“Allah will punish you,” Gumer Ganiyev, the sect leader’s deputy, yelled at police officers. “You will all die tomorrow.”

Comments (21)

  • Tigress1
    Posted on August 14, 2012 at 9:04pm

    Do headlines starting with “Here’s Everything You Need to Know…” bother anyone else as much as they bother me? Somebody else is deciding for us how much and what we NEED to know? Just tell us what YOU know and we will decide if that’s everything we want to know!

    Just a pet peeve. :)

    Report Post » Tigress1  
  • JACKTHETOAD
    Posted on August 14, 2012 at 4:50pm

    What a coincidence.I feel the same way. Yup tvoy you mach, sukum sin!

    Report Post » JACKTHETOAD  
  • Constantine Ivanov
    Posted on August 14, 2012 at 1:46pm

    “…YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT RUSSIA’S ….CULT…” – posted by Billy Hallowell

    Hello, Billy! What was your grade in geography and politics in your school?
    No Kazan particularly, no Tatarstan in general are Russia.

    TATAR – stan. Capisi? Entiendes? Ferstehst? Wakatta ka? Ponimaesh?

    Look at the map, you remiss pupil.

    Report Post » Constantine Ivanov  
  • Constantine Ivanov
    Posted on August 14, 2012 at 12:52pm

    “KAZAN, Russia (AP)…” – this is what an AP author must forcibly be taken for scrotum removal.
    Can you imagine this: “Sacramento, America (AP)…”?

    Report Post » Constantine Ivanov  
    • Constantine Ivanov
      Posted on August 14, 2012 at 6:08pm

      “This is for what the AP author must be forcibly taken for scrotum removal.”
      Anger and proper spelling are incompatible….-:)

      Report Post » Constantine Ivanov  
  • Constantine Ivanov
    Posted on August 14, 2012 at 12:45pm

    One almost irrelevant notice:
    Tatarstan is not a “Russian province” as the article and photo captions say.
    It’s the Republic of Tatarstan, a federal subject of Russia (a republic) located in the Volga Federal District.
    Try to call Atlanta, Georgia, “a capitol of an American province” and let’s see what will happen

    Report Post » Constantine Ivanov  
    • The-Real-Enrico
      Posted on August 14, 2012 at 2:57pm

      You’re right. I was scratching my head over the title too. The Blaze should read their commenter’s comments. They could correct a large amount of their mistake if they did.

      Report Post » The-Real-Enrico  
  • OniKaze
    Posted on August 14, 2012 at 12:22pm

    I feel bad that these people are being treated poorly (in their eyes), but when you constantly spit in the face of governments (like Islam regularly does) things like this will happen…

    Just give it a few years, and if sentiments don’t change here, they will treat tea-partiers the same way…

    The future is grim, my friends…

    Report Post » OniKaze  
    • Joker50
      Posted on August 14, 2012 at 1:58pm

      You compare these people to the Tea Party? What are you smokin there Jake?

      Report Post »  
  • scrapadapolis
    Posted on August 14, 2012 at 11:24am

    Everyone remember this story.Copy it save it whatever.very soon these sects will further emblish america,and they will call it freedom of religin.They will starve children and their parents to obey alla,after they suck them in to the pureness of islam and the peacefullness of the community.There motto will mostlikelly be they who don’t understand islam must be destroyed.

    Report Post » scrapadapolis  
  • OperationNorthwoods
    Posted on August 14, 2012 at 10:25am

    Unless there is some evidence of illegality, they should leave these people alone. This type of treatment is the reason people become violent towards the government and its officials.

    Report Post » OperationNorthwoods  
  • Meyvn
    Posted on August 14, 2012 at 8:00am

    Where sick meets sicker.

    Report Post » Meyvn  
  • tothepoint
    Posted on August 14, 2012 at 7:59am

    Russia, too, is learning the price of permitting a misogynist cult like Islam to nestle within its borders.
    Misogyny, oppression of other religions and death to homosexuals are just some of the results of Muslim communities setting up within their borders.
    And Obama and his gang support all of this.

    Report Post »  
    • EqualJustice
      Posted on August 14, 2012 at 8:57am

      I always wonder if Obama making Gay marriage legal could be used as a way to IDENTIFYING them in the future? It’s such a scary thought. These people going underground like the vermon they are, treating women and children like sex slaves in the name of Allahis disgusting. Who would stop them here in the US? They don’t even stop illegal aliens from building ellaborate tunnels in which to travel back and forth across our borders. They could hold anyone hostage underground.

      Report Post » EqualJustice  
    • objectivetruth
      Posted on August 14, 2012 at 9:20am

      @Equaljustice
      Its called the dept of Child Protective Services/That and CAPTA signed in 1974 after a summit with the country oif Jordan on children.The same ones that allow anyone who can dial a phone including but not limited to Terror cells rapists pedophiles illegal baby rings to call and report alledged abuse.They have wasted billions of our dollars in this harrasement torture campaign to destroy the nuclear family from within.That sought to destroy military families first.No matter when they served.They saw them and their children, as an even bigger threat than our government[whom they could control and manipulate]Well now nothing will be done to the muslims.They run the show.WAKE UP WE LOST THIS COUNTRY ALONG TIME AGO.They run it all.

      Report Post »  
  • 700P
    Posted on August 14, 2012 at 7:55am

    Funny how the potential distortions are eerily similar to the Alinsky tactics employed by the WH Propaganda Office aka MSM.

    Report Post » 700P  
    • starman70
      Posted on August 14, 2012 at 8:32am

      Anybody remember Janet Reno and the Branch Davidian cult in Waco? Looks the same to me. Let the lib press get ahold of it and it becomes some sort of outrageous slave camp. The press ALWAYS over exaggerates any story in order to make government actions palatable.

      Report Post »  
  • blanco5
    Posted on August 14, 2012 at 7:17am

    The Russians are allowed to do to these people whatever they want b/c it’s Russia!!!! So, what are they waiting for?

    Report Post »  
  • sawbuck
    Posted on August 14, 2012 at 6:56am

    Anyone else having trouble posting comments this morning..?

    Report Post » sawbuck  

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