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7. Demografichesky ezhegodnik Rossii 2012. Statistichesky sbornik. - Moscow, Rosstat, 2012 - 535 pp.
8. P. Korobov. Islam - religiya korennykh rossiyan //Kommersant, 2011, February 18.
9. A. Melnikov. Zolotaya Orda i Imamat Shamilya kak osnova rossiiskoi gosudarstvennosti // NG-Religii 2010, July 7.
10. V. Putin. Vystupleniye na zasedanii kluba "Valdai" // Rossiiskaya gazeta, 2013, September 19.
11. Obrashcheniye Presidenta Rossiiskoi Federatsii V. Putina. Official site: URL.: http://www.kremlin.ru/news/20603 March 18, 2014.
12. V. Tishkov. Polietnicheskoye obshchestvo i gosudarstvo: ponimaniye i upravleniye kulturnym raznoobraziyem. - Moscow. Ves Mir, 2013, pp. 144-194.
13. J.S. Midgal. State in Society: Studying How States and Societies Transform and Continue One Another. - New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
14. Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. 2010. The Future of the Global Muslim Population: Projections for 2010-2030. Washington D.C., Pew Research Center, 2011, January.
Written specially for Bulletin "Russia and the Moslem World".
Yekaterina Rudakova,
Cand.Sc., political analyst, Nizhny Novgorod
State Linguistic University
EVOLUTION OF TRADITIONAL ISLAM
WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF RELIGIOUS SAFETY
OF THE VOLGA FEDERAL DISTRICT
The situation in international relations remains stable and controlled, according to the latest report of the Central Apparatus of the FSS1.
The necessary facilities have been created in parts of the district, so that Muslims and Orthodox Christians, as well as members of other faiths feel safe and secure, on one condition, mandatory for all, that is, if they do not break the law2.
The number of people, who believe that ethnic and religious conflicts are possible in Saratov, Samara, Nizhny Novgorod and Perm is about 20 percent of the population for today, according to recent sociological research, and this is a fairly high rate3.
The President of the Republic of Tatarstan noted that traditional Islam came across a number of serious threats in the district in 20122013: religious extremists attempted to kill the ex-Mufti of the Republic of Tatarstan Ildus Faizov, killed his deputy Waliullah Yakupov, set out several Orthodox churches on fire, and committed other terrorist acts. Radical sentiments in society are on an increase, whereas tolerance is decreasing, especially among young people, prestige of religious leaders is falling, whereas aggressive extremist content in the Internet is rising. Although the level of migration is high, there are few adaptation programs for migrants. All this calls for closer work with the authorities, especially with the Chief Federal Inspector in the Republic of Tatarstan and other territorial bodies.
Experts of the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies (RISS) maintain that the Volga Federal District has faced a number of threats on religious grounds in recent years, which have both objective internal and external causes. The gradual evolution of Islam and its role in socio-political relations is believed to be the most serious threat to religious safety in the area. Replacement of the traditional system of values and beliefs of Islam and the continuing attempts to introduce the ideas of radical extremism, especially among young people, give grounds for serious concern. There are several reasons for this process.
1. The crisis of confidence in traditional Islam among young people. The collapse of the Soviet Union had a major impact on the world outlook of the Muslim youth. Unconventional beliefs have replaced the ideology of communism and filled religious vacuum. Only a few clerics have been trained for hundreds of thousands of Muslims
in Soviet times. Religious norms alien to Russian Islam have been promoted in madrasahs by priests and other men who arrived from Arab countries. Religious illiteracy is a major cause of radicalism and departure from traditional norms, according to the head of the Independent Analytical Center for Religion, Law and Policy Daniar Muradilov. Religious knowledge, moral purity, self-improvement, search for peace and harmony with others, respect for other confessions, combined with personal spiritual feats in the name of God and for the good of the people, are of great importance for young people. These eternal values cannot be acquired only in the process of learning; the experience of religious life and spiritual values are passed from generation to generation.
The murder of spiritual leaders of traditional religions in Russia looks causes profound indignation. Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church has noted that civil peace in our country has been tested for strength. It should be admitted that there have been attempts to intimidate the leaders of Islam preaching the traditional views of Islamic theology in Russia and fighting against radical Islamic ideology even at the cost of their own lives.
2. The crisis of the traditional structures of Islam in Russia. The official Islamic structures are often characterized by incompetence, conservatism, and passivity in dealing with the most important issues of our time. These weak points of the spiritual structures are not internal problems of the Muslim community, but an important issue of the public, especially when disappointed young people go underground.
The Muslim Ummah recognizes the existence of this problem to date. Legal nihilism and alienation of the Muslim clergy and Muslim intellectuals are also among many problems causing concern. Russia has enough experts and professionals in this field, but they are scattered, and there is almost no intra-communication within the
Ummah4. Indeed, the fragmentation of the Russian Ummah is a real problem, the cohesion of Russian Muslims is the order of the day.
3. Alienation of young people from traditional Islamic values.
There has been a dangerous trend among Muslims in the Volga region. The older generation of Muslims still adheres to traditional theology and religious practices, but young people, many of whom have been educated abroad, introduce new trends of religious culture. The number of adherents of non-traditional version of Islam is already more than a thousand people in Kazan alone; there are both parishioners of mosques and representatives of the Muslim clergy among them.
There is the view that the existence of foreign schools of Islam is not dangerous for Russia. However, the followers of Salaphism introduce and preach not only religious ideas, but also political and social traditions of Arab society which does not tolerate dissent and other forms of religion and prohibits many spiritual practices. This doctrine is contrary not only to the traditional values of Islam in Russia, but also the laws of our country. If the Salaphite doctrine develops freely, conflicts and violence will inevitably occur in this country. This ideology should be officially banned in Russia as one running counter to the Constitution.
Moreover, the Quranic spirit of Islam is most adequately expressed in the Russian Islamic practice, according to most Russian and foreign Muslim scholars. Most Islamic countries are looking for an answer to the question of adaptation of Islam to globalization and democracy, choosing between a return to traditionalism or modernization of Islam. Russian Islam has long found answers to these questions in the process of evolution of the Russian state in the possibility of a compromise with the secular authorities and adaptability to the multi-religious environment. For centuries, Russian Islam has
generated the principles of humanity and tolerance, having a great spiritual potential and cultural attractiveness.
Russian Muslims have not yet returned to mass Islamization for today, but it will certainly happen, causing a powerful spiritual phenomenon which would be attractive to the entire Muslim world. There is awareness among Arabs and Turks that Russian Muslims have spiritual treasures, and this is why many people travel to us and books of our scholars are carefully studied and published abroad.
4. The problem of theological education of Muslim young people and Muslim clergy. Hundreds of Russian Muslims go abroad every year to get Islamic education in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, since Russia has not yet developed a system of Islamic education. Damir Khayretdinov, Rector of the Moscow Islamic University, believes that Muslim foreign education increases the qualification level of the Muslim clergy, who gain greater experience and knowledge of a civilized approach to the study of Islam, especially when a Muslim has already qualified in the field of Islamic theology. However, about seventy percent of the students, who have returned to Russia after studying abroad, cannot perceive the true knowledge of Islam5. Foreign Islamic education is not a panacea. The level of teaching of the Arabic language in the above-mentioned countries is not comparable with the Russian school of Oriental studies, which is at a rather low level.
Moreover, Russian students are faced with all sorts of difficulties in foreign Islamic centers. Only a small percentage of them go through the entire training course, many leave after the first year. The Volga Federal District has attended to this problem quite seriously long ago. Mikhail Babich, Presidential Plenipotentiary in the Volga Federal District, notes that the modern Islamic high schools in Russia will be quite useful, especially for rural imams who have either primary
religious education, or do not have any at all, which compromises their credibility among rural young people, many of whom join extremist organizations quite often6.
Nowadays, 95 Muslim educational institutions, seven higher educational institutions and 31 madrasahs, state-supported, are registered in Russia. The three-level program of Islamic education will be tested in the near future as part of a pilot project in the Volga Federal District. The main goal of the program is the creation of a domestic system of modern Islamic education in Russia, the republics of Tatarstan and Bashkortostan. Two training centers were already functioning, and more than two hundred imams completed their education there in 2013. The number of imams has been planned to increase by several times for this year, and about three thousand imams should be retrained by 2017.
5. Religious incompetence of the mass media. Religious incompetence of the mass media exacerbates the situation. A disoriented man "drowns" in the flow of religious information and often becomes a victim of sects, crooks and extremists. Radical structures affect the immature minds of young people through distorted interpretations of religious and historical sources, taking advantage of their illiteracy, and deform the value system of the younger generation.
Unfortunately, propaganda and recruitment of young people into radical Islamist structures have continued through the mass media and the Internet. The influence of pseudo-religious structures covers more and more territories and extends to more stable regions, where the Islamists involve students in extremist groups.
It is necessary to instill tolerance towards different confessions, to use the mass media resources wisely in order to avoid the manipulation of the consciousness of the younger generation, and to
ensure stability and prosperity of our multicultural secular state in the future.
6. The role of migrants in the distribution of extremist ideas.
The flow of migrants from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan plays a crucial role in the growth of the population of the Volga Federal District. These regions provide three-quarters of the migration growth rate, which is two and a half million foreigners a year. In this regard, the measures of the social integration of migrants should be improved to create civilized conditions for their stay in the country. Many migrants have little knowledge of the Russian language, have no idea about the customs and traditions of the Russian regions, and do not know the laws and rules, which raises concern of the local population.
It is evident that radical religious and nationalist ideas are exported by migration flows. The active process of creating organizations, alternative to the existing national and cultural structures, has taken place in the migrants environment. Moreover, certain radical religious organizations and political figures have begun to use migrants to their advantage. Some experts believe that Russia may find itself in the situation of Europe, where radical religious ideas are disseminated as the ideas of tolerance toward immigrants.
7. The activity of radical Islamist organizations. The Volga Federal District is a zone of interests of the two organizations at once: Khizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami and the Caucasus Emirate, that tend to separate the regions of traditional residence of Muslims from Russia and to create a World Islamic Caliphate. The terrorist act in Volgograd shows a new trend, namely, the recruitment of terrorists among nonMuslims, as it has been done by Dmitry Sokolov, ethnic Russian. Primarily, the recruiters are interested in young co-religionists who have few prospects for the future and no clear rules of life and moral principles7. New religious movements, which attract people with
comprehensibility of the world and the lack of deep spiritual practices, are active on the territory of the Volga Federal District. Rais Suleimanov, an expert of the Institute of National Strategy, believes that the problem with radical organizations directly depends on the arrival of missionaries from abroad after the collapse of the U.S.S.R. Dissemination of radical ideas depends on three factors: the willingness of the population to take this ideology, the degree of activity of the preachers, and the response of the regional authorities to the activities of the preachers. Russia's borders and its federal districts are no obstacle for the Islamists, who have established close connections with the radicals of the Urals, the Volga, the North Caucasus, and the CIS countries8.
8. Interethnic tension in the PFD. Forces, interested in inciting sectarian and ethnic tensions, in creating centers of instability for the use of religious and nationalist fanatics for political purposes, have always existed in the world. Their main methods for incitement of hatred and hostility, such as lies, propaganda and misinformation, have not changed for centuries, but they did not have effective technologies to disseminate information some time ago. The possibilities of the Internet are increasingly used to influence the consciousness of target groups, as it is free from the moral and legal restrictions, liability and commitment, and as it is an indispensable mechanism for unhindered anonymous supply of data and consolidation of social groups9.
The age-old traditions of peaceful coexistence of different religions and nationalities are gradually destroyed by means of the information warfare. Evidence of the purposeful information warfare is the continuing growth of provocations aimed at undermining stability, security, and traditional values of good neighborliness, and peaceful interaction of ethnic groups and religions in certain regions of the country.
President Vladimir Putin spoke about the people, provoking the political tension in Russia, that "they are a kind of amoral International, which includes uncontrolled insolent natives of some southern regions of Russia, corrupt law enforcement officials who protect the ethnic mafia, the so-called Russian nationalists, and various separatists."
Since the Volga Federal District is characterized by multi-ethnic and multi-religious composition of the population, as well as a large number of religious organizations and great migration flows, the problem for the district is particularly relevant. M. Babich reported that at present, the region is working hard to create equal conditions for the life of all people, regardless of their nationality and faith. Russia has signed a federal law that defines the responsibility of the heads of regions and municipalities for the state of interethnic and interfaith
relations10.
Inter-ethnic harmony and stability is the subject of constant painstaking work of all state and public institutions. Tatarstan allocated more than 21 million rubles in subsidies to strengthen the unity of the Russian nation and ethnic and cultural development of the peoples of Russia with a view to implementing the Strategy of the state national policy of Russia in March 201411.
In 2012, the Department for domestic policy under the President of the Russian Federation was formed. The Interdepartmental Working Group on Ethnic Affairs is to tackle current issues.
Sociological research and monitoring of the situation are taken continuously, which makes it possible to respond adequately and promptly to changing situations. All district heads and other officials have attended special training courses. The standards of Islamic religious education, evolved at the initiative of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims, are now being considered by the President12.
List of literature
1. Zadvornov I.A. 2000 Severny Kavkaz: etnopoliticheskiye i religiozniye osobennosti sotsiokulturnoi identichnosti [2000 North Caucasus: Ethno-political and Religious Characteristics of Social and Cultural Identity] // Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya, № 10. pp. 52-57.
2. Koychuev A.A. - Dzh. 2006. Severny Kavkaz: Islam v dele vospitaniya molodyozhi. [Islam in the Education of Young People.] // Izvestiya Yuzhnogo federalnogo universiteta. Tehnicheskiye nauki, V. 68. № 13. pp. 271-275.
3. Korotkina A.A. 2014 Tsentr sotsialnoi adaptatsii trudovykh migrantov v Orenburgskoi oblasti: opyt raboty. [Center for Social Adaptation of Migrant Workers in the Orenburg Region: Work Experience.] // All-Russia Scientific Conference «University complex as a regional center for education, science and culture.» Orenburg, 29-31. 2014. http://conference.osu.ru./assets/files/conf_ reports/conf10/286.doc
Notes
Babich M. 2014 Osnovnaya problema — eto ottok molodyozhi v zarubezhniye obrazovatelniye islamskiye tsentry. [The main problem is the outflow of young people to foreign educational Islamic centers.] // PROGOROD Yoshkar-Ola. Access: http: //pg12.ru/news/view/65262
Press-sluzhba Glavnogo federalnogo inspektora po Orenburgskoi oblasti. [Pressoffice of Chief Federal Inspector in the Orenburg region.] // Orenburgskiye novosti. 2014. Access: http://orinfo/ru/n/77599
R. Minnikhanov. 2014. Mezhnatsionalnoye soglasiye i stabilnost — predmet postoyannoi kropotlivoi raboty [Interethnic harmony and stability - a subject of constant hard work.] Site of the Government of the Republic of Tatarstan. Access: http: //www.intertat.ru
Yakupov V. 2012. Vahhabizm v Rossii dolzhen byt zapreshchen. [2012 Wahhabism should be banned in Russia.] // Sut vremeni. Access: http: //eot16.ru/archives/4203 Interfax. Religion. 2006. December 30. Access: http://www.interfax-religion.ru/islam/?act=interview&div=118&domain=3
Babich M. 2014 Osnovnaya problema — eto ottok molodyozhi v zarubezhniye obrazovatelniye islamskiye tsentry. [The main problem is the outflow of young people to foreign educational Islamic centers.] // PROGOROD Yoshkar-Ola. Access: http: //pg12.ru/news/view/65262/
Polyakova Yu. 2013. Verbovshchik voznikayet nezametno. [Recruiter appears imperceptibly.] Nizhegorodskaya pravda, № 132.
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Suleimanov R. 2014. Dlya vahhabitov net granits vnutri strany. [There are no borders in the country for the Wahhabis.] News Agency of Bashmedia. Access: http://bashmedia.info/video/dlya_vahhabitov_net_granic_vnutri_strany/ Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev). 2011. Problema religioznoi neterpimosti. Chto my mozhem sdelat vmeste? [The problem of religious intolerance. What can we do together? ]Tekst vystupleniya na konferentsii "Khristiansko-iudeo-musulmansky mezhkonfessionalny dialog." Budapest, June 2, 2011 Access: http: // hilarion.ru/ The official portal of the Presidential Administration of the Republic of Tatarstan. 2013 December 19. Access: http: //prav.tatar.ru/rus/index.htm/news/252874.html Executive Order on Russia's National Policy Strategy through to 2025 // Legal information portal "Guarant". Access: http://base.garant.ru/
Renkova T. 2014. Ros.Biznes.Konsalting. Access: http://rt.rbc.ru/tatarstan_ topnews/15/05/2014/924015.shtml
"Vlast", Moscow, 2014, No 8, pp. 76-83.
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V. Avksentyev,
Political analyst (Rostov-on-Don)
V. Vasilchenko,
Political analyst (Stavropol)
ETHNIC ELITES AND ETHNOCRACIES
OF THE NORTH CAUCASUS:
INTERACTION WITH INSTITUTIONS
OF MODERN SOCIETY
At present Russia is living through a deep social, political and cultural transformation, which can have a decisive influence on its entire future history. One of the factors supporting disintegration tendencies and contributing to the functioning of Russian society as a state of crisis is ethnic tension. Periodic conflicts caused by rivalry for access to status and resources, in which republican elites have been drawn, street violence of ethnic origin, etc. are a reflection of the acute character of interethnic relations.
