http://kavkazcenter.com/eng/article.php?id=2353 Three years ago, when I published my article «Way Out: Islamization of Russia» on the Kavkaz Center website, Russian Islam seemed to me like some kind of a dream or an analytical conclusion that did not much reflect the real state of affairs. Only a half a century ago a phrase 'Russian Muslim' was nonsense. Islam was considered the faith of the Tatars. Pioneers of Russian Islam were Russian women who married Muslim foreigners, veterans of the Soviet-Afghan war (1979-1989) who were held by Mujahideen as POWs, and rare modern God-seekers. No doubt they were outsiders in the Russian society, but just like the disciples of Prophet Isa (Jesus, peace be upon him), they managed to raise a mighty wave, seen not only at the departments of religion studies, but even in spacious offices of high-ranking officials. Adviser of Plenipotentiary of President of Russian Federation in Volga Federal Circuit, Sergei Gradirovsky, said in a number of his interviews and publications ('Russian Islam', 2002; «Cultural Boundary: Russian Islam», 2003) straight out: «Russian world has its own Islamic segment. And this segment will be growing and getting stronger» (http://antropotok.archipelag.ru/). This thing was said in the context that Islam is a life-giving force in the Russian society, and if the nation wants to survive, it has to consider this force («if the power claims true legitimization, it must rely on the life-giving processes from the bottom»). The revival of Russian spirituality must not be tied to the revival of Orthodoxy exclusively. Such an alignment can split Russia regionally, just like India was split in 1947, and can add to regional isolation of Russians from the world. This is the conclusion that the expert makes: it is not Islam, but anti-Islamic policies that pose a threat to national security. By the most conservative estimates made by the experts of the Russian Orthodox Church, the number of ethnic Russians practicing Islam exceeds 30 thousand (www.samara.orthodoxy.ru/). Is it a little or a lot? Compared to the figures from the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1977), it is three times larger than the population of such ethnic groups as Eskimos (Chukchi) or Evenki. It must be mentioned that as a rule, Russian Muslims are young energetic people, whose communities are scattered all across various cities of Russia. Up until recently, Karelia Muslims (in Northwestern Russia) have been considered to be most active thanks to the missionary work of Abu Ahmad Mustafa (Oleg Starodubtsev). There are all reasons to believe that the number of Russian Muslims will not be just increasing, but it will be multiplying at the rapid rate. There are all prerequisites necessary. Russians can now freely get familiarized with the translations of the Holy Quran, among which there is the poetic translation of 1991, made by ethnic Russian Muslim woman Iman (Valeria) Porokhova. If in the past people in the mosques of Russia were speaking the languages of ethnic Muslims, today they are speaking Russian to one another. Many Russian Islamic mass media have appeared, some of them are owned by Russian Muslims. For example, www.koran.ru website by Shamil Matveev or www.islam.ru by Ali Polosin. Little by little the misunderstanding that Islam is an attribute of the cultures of Russia's ethnic minorities and a symbol of their national identity is disappearing. Today being a Muslim for a Russian does not mean being a Tatar or a Chechen. Sergei Gradirovsky mentions that Russian Islam is not a new trend, and especially not a distortion of the principles of faith, but it is a 'cultural buffer' that adapts Russian culture to Islam. You can only be glad about such attitude among the Russian officials, for if their opinion prevails, Russia can quite possibly turn into the territory of mild Jihad, for the goal of Jihad is not killing, but spreading the Faith. But why Russians are adopting Islam? 1. 'Rationalism', or to put it bluntly, dogmatic clarity. In contrast with Orthodox Christianity that covers its dogmatic unclearness with mysticism, Islam gives a clear idea of God, of the personality of Prophet Isa (Jesus Christ, peace be upon him), about life after death, and about sources of worldwide evil. 2. 'Convenience' or ritual easiness. Islam does not prescribe virtually any impracticable Russian Orthodox fasts that push to hypocrisy. There is only one fast offered instead – during daylight in the Holy Month of Ramadan. Muslim initiating, wedding and burial rituals are simple and easy. Islam allows confessing to God directly, bypassing the intermediaries and doubtful bureaucratic Church clerics. All in all, Islam is alien to the spirit of bureaucracy, even though Russian Empress Catherine II made a vaccination of that spirit by the model of the Synodal Church. In 1778 she founded the Orenburg Mohammedan Clerical Assembly (of Muftis) headed by appointed Muftis who were paid from the Tsarina’s treasury. After undergoing a number of transformations, the Mohammedan Clerical Assembly still remains as an instrument of control over Muslims by the Kremlin. But on the whole, the hierarchy of the Islamic society (Ummah) is built on the spiritual authority. 3. 'Anti-system structure of Islam'. Islam is the only serious alternative to the society of consumers. Not everyone is happy with the fact that commercial pop-culture based on propaganda of sex and mindless violence is becoming the only form of culture. Not everyone wants to turn into a money-making and money-squandering machine that serves the image appropriate to a certain status rather than just making a living. Not everyone can put up with the catastrophic degradation of morals, when the juvenile crime rate, infidelity and extramarital depravity become a norm of life. The old age of a member of society of consumers is terrible. In the West the old people are forgotten by their children and they have to spend the rest of their days in senior homes. And in Russia their lot is loneliness and constant dangers to become victims of all kinds of scam artists. Islam is an alternative to all of it. Furthermore, the Holy Quran allows coordinating positive moments of all modern political spectra: market with no profiteering, and social justice without tyranny. Thus, Russian Islam is a promising and natural phenomenon in the Russian society. Islamic segment of the Russian culture in the middle of degradation of other segments has all chances to turn into the main and motive force of the Russian society in the near future. Alexei Ivanenko, for Kavkaz-Center 2004-01-15 10:59:01 |
|