| schema:text
| - Fact Check: Putin did not ban interfaith marriages for Muslim men in Russia
A viral post on social media claims that Russian President Vladimir Putin has banned Muslim men in Russia from marrying non-Muslim women.
Listen to Story
India Today Fact Check
Not Putin but a Muslim organisation in Russia had passed a ruling banning Muslim men from marrying non-Muslim women. The ruling has no legal power.
With Uttar Pradesh bringing in a draft ordinance against forcible conversions in interfaith marriages, and Madhya Pradesh mulling one, “love jihad” is back in the Indian political discourse.
Amid this, several social media handles are claiming that Vladimir Putin has banned Muslim men in Russia from marrying non-Muslim women. The claim says, “A musl!m man cannot marry non-musl!m woman in Russia. Ordered by President Vladimir Putin”.
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found the claim to be misleading. This was a religious ruling passed by a Russian Muslim organisation and it has no legal power.
The archived versions of similar posts can be seen here, here and here.
AFWA probe
We could not find any recent statement by Putin against interfaith marriages in Russia. The Russian government website also has no information regarding a similar ruling.
However, we found several reports by Russian media on a similar religious ruling by an organisation called Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Russia (DUM). The reports also say how the ruling sparked a backlash from senior Muslim clerics across Russia.
According to a November 12 report by “The Moscow Times”, the DUM’s advisory council of scholars issued a ruling saying interfaith marriages between Muslim men and non-Muslim women can only be allowed in isolated cases with the approval of local muftis.
The five-page ruling in Russian issued by DUM on November 19, 2019, can be accessed here. However, according to Russian media, it was made public only on November 10.
We also found a clarification statement on the matter by Damir Mukhetdinov, first deputy chairman of DUM, that says the decision of the advisory council of scholars did not necessarily reflect the opinion of the larger directorate.
In his statement issued on November 10, Mukhetdinov says Russia is a secular state, and hence, the decision of the Council of Ulema has no legal power and there will not be any punishment in case of failure to comply with the ruling.
Therefore, it is clear that the ruling stating Muslim men in Russia cannot marry non-Muslim women was issued by a Muslim organisation and not Vladimir Putin. Also, the ruling has no legal power in the country.
Please share it on our at 73 7000 7000
You can also send us an email at factcheck@intoday.com
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)