Translated material
Olympic mosque
Dmitry Medvedev listened to the wishes of the Muslim clergy
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visited the Moscow Cathedral Mosque yesterday and met with Muslim religious leaders there. The President and the muftis reminded each other that Russia is a multi-religious country in which representatives of different ethnic groups live. And that these groups realize, or at least try to realize, that they are all one Russian nation. Muslim leaders asked the head of state to promote the construction and restoration of mosques, for example, to build a mosque in Sochi. The President promised to give appropriate orders. “The duty of the leader of our state, the President of the Russian Federation, no matter who he is, is to always pay attention to all faiths. First of all, the largest faiths, including Muslim,” explained Dmitry Medvedev.The current head of state has already been to the mosques of Ufa and Kazan, but yesterday’s visit can well be called historical. The Cathedral Mosque, the second oldest in Moscow, was built in Vypolzovoy Lane back in 1904, and until now not a single head of the Russian state (neither the last emperor, nor Soviet leaders, nor presidents of Russia) has crossed its threshold, although foreign leaders have not We've been here once as guests. Now a new mosque building is being built next to the old complex. Two 70-meter reinforced concrete minarets have already stretched out against the familiar background of the bulk of the Olympic sports complex, and in the courtyard the gilded top with a crescent, prepared for one of them, sparkles in the summer sun. Yesterday, the minarets under construction were used for a different purpose - the security service of the head of state stationed its snipers around the construction site. While the president inspected the construction site and talked with the muftis, the few believers and regular customers of the halal store were politely turned away by police officers.
The President came to the muftis on his own initiative and thus continued a series of meetings with leaders of traditional faiths, which in Russia include Orthodox Christians, Muslims, Jews and Buddhists.
According to Dmitry Medvedev's calculations, there are 182 ethnic groups living in Russia, and 57 of them identify with Islam. Of course, the head of state cannot discount this dynamically growing segment of society.
According to the estimates of Muslim leaders themselves, the number of Muslims in Russia can reach 20-25 million people, which is a seventh of the population. Sociologists who are not bound by religious affiliation tend to proceed from the figure of 14.5 million people. But, according to a number of sociological surveys, in which the answer to the question about religious affiliation implies not just a declaration, but actual adherence to at least the basic requirements of a religious group, it turns out that there are 7-9 million Muslims in the Russian Federation.
The range of figures cited by researchers is wide - from a clearly underestimated 5 million people (more Muslims live in the North Caucasus alone) to 50 million (if this figure were correct, it would mean that Russia is almost half a Muslim country). However, even without abstract sociology, it is obvious that the Muslim community in our country is growing rapidly: it is enough to note that records for the reproduction of the population in Russia, which in general is aging and dying, are set in several North Caucasian republics, where more than half of the residents are under 30 years old. These same regions, for obvious reasons, are among the leaders in the number of conscripts - last year, the British magazine The Economist calculated that within six years, Muslims in the Russian army will be in the majority.
It is quite natural that such a shift in the usual religious and demographic balance causes a certain anxiety and tension in society. And Muslim spiritual leaders can play a key role in smoothing over any possible contradictions. Dmitry Medvedev noted yesterday that “Muslim religious organizations make a great contribution to maintaining civil peace, spiritual and moral education, and the fight against extremism and xenophobia.” “Everything in the world is still very difficult; there are ethnic and religious conflicts,” the president said. - Unfortunately, in many regions of the planet there is a noticeable increase in extremist sentiments. Unfortunately, in Russia the activity of extremist organizations is very active. Extremists hide behind a variety of slogans—Islamic, non-Islamic, and generally unrelated to faith. But nevertheless, this factor is very complex, destabilizing the situation in our country. We are obliged to take it into account and take all measures to neutralize it. Our most important joint task is to spread the ideas of tolerance and religious tolerance, respect for the spiritual values and traditions of the people of our multinational country and its cultural diversity.”
The President recalled that Russia has observer status of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the main international institution of Muslims, and that back in December 2006, on the initiative of then President Vladimir Putin, the Russian Foundation for the Support of Islamic Culture, Science and Education was created. And at the suggestion of Dmitry Medvedev himself, spiritual education in our country was equated with secular education - that is, a graduate of a madrasah (or seminary) has the right to a diploma equivalent to an ordinary document of education. Dmitry Medvedev, according to him, is pleased with the respect that is shown in the Muslim world to representatives of Russia as a country in which Muslims are not oppressed, where they can calmly practice religion and build mosques.
After several visits to the North Caucasus, the President, of course, cannot help but be aware that Islam becomes a problem when its banner is raised by young people who consider themselves Muslims and do not recognize the spiritual authority of the people in beautiful traditional vestments who were sitting at the same table yesterday with the head of state. Meanwhile, in the ideological struggle against armed young radicals, the Kremlin can only rely on the traditional clergy: the muftiates must regain the trust of doubters and convince them that in Russia there is complete freedom of religion, and all citizens are equal regardless of religion - as long as they comply with the law . But oddly enough, the muftis did not talk about this at all: rather, they asked the state for support.
Chairman of the Council of Muftis of Russia Ravil Gainutdin asked the president to order the start of construction of a mosque in Sochi, the main Russian resort and capital of the 2014 Winter Olympics. “They are going to build something temporary there and then dismantle it later,” complained Mufti Gainutdin. “If we build, then, of course, we need to build something normal, one that will last for centuries,” agreed the head of state. “We have more Muslims, not fewer.”
Sitting opposite Mufti Gainutdin, to the right of the head of the presidential administration Sergei Naryshkin, the Supreme Mufti, Chairman of the Central Spiritual Administration of Muslims Talgat Tajutdin, who became famous for his attempt to declare jihad on the United States after the start of allied operations in Afghanistan, even suggested that the state take care of utility bills, which were not hundreds of rural mosques can do it. “Before the revolution, there were more than 7 thousand mosques in Russia; in the 1920s, about the same number were built, and almost all of them were then destroyed,” Tadzhutdin said. - When they say that too many mosques are being built in Russia now, this is not true - about half of what was built before has been built. Many of them are modest, made of logs, they have to be closed for the winter because there is no money to pay for heating.”
It seemed that at this moment the president was about to make the necessary note that Russia is, after all, a secular country, so no one is going to put the burden of maintaining religious buildings on the budget. But Dmitry Medvedev, who had just spoken about the bright prospects for Islamic entrepreneurship, and banking in particular, preferred to answer with correct wording. “It is absolutely necessary to build mosques so that the Muslim ummah feels comfortable and can pray,” the president said. Through the window of the meeting room, the president at that moment could clearly see the massive silhouette of the minaret, which was being built despite numerous protests from multi-religious residents of the surrounding Moscow houses, who were not at all delighted with such a change in the urban landscape.
The head of the coordination center for Muslims of the North Caucasus, Mufti of Karachay-Cherkessia Ismail Berdiev, who was sitting directly opposite the president, surrounded by the muftis of Chechnya, Dagestan and Kabardino-Balkaria, thanked Dmitry Medvedev for supporting the idea of opening a mosque in Sochi. He recalled that on the land where hotels and health resorts now stand, Circassian peoples once lived (by the way, they fought the Russian Empire under the banner of Islam). Residents of Sochi, according to Berdiev, have long been asking to open a mosque there. But in the Stavropol Territory, of which the Karachay-Cherkess Republic was a part until 1991, it seems to Berdiev that they treat Muslims with caution, if not hostility: they fence themselves off from the republic with checkpoints, and find fault with a person if he is even slightly non-Russian. Ismail Berdiev kept silent about the fact that the Stavropol region, which borders six of the seven republics of the North Caucasus, is experiencing constant demographic pressure from them, that North Caucasian entrepreneurs have long and firmly occupied by no means the last places in the structure of the economy of this region, and that Stavropol Russians are almost better any others know how to live and work with their Caucasian fellow citizens - precisely because of their long-standing proximity.
“In Kislovodsk, a mosque was handed over to believers; it was in disrepair. They decided to demolish it, but now they won’t let us build a new one: they say there’s an Orthodox church nearby, and there could be difficulties. They don’t understand that, on the contrary, there will be difficulties if they don’t allow the mosque to be built,” Ismail Berdiev complained. “One Muslim who donated money for the construction of an Orthodox church and then decided to send pilgrims to Mecca was accused of Wahhabism because of this.” “Tell us who accused us, we will get rid of this person,” Mr. Medvedev firmly promised, calling such behavior stupid, and added that he would definitely come to the Karachay-Cherkess Republic: “I really liked your meat.”
Ismail Berdiev immediately decided to support the domestic producer: “It would be great if you gave an order to Zubkov (First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov, who oversees agriculture - Ed. ) so that he meets with the head of the government of the republic and the people who produce this meat produce, we got the opportunity to take it directly to Moscow.” “This is just the simplest thing,” the president answered and ordered Sergei Naryshkin to make a corresponding note in his notebook.
It is very likely that Mufti of Chechnya Sultan Mirzaev, former chairman of the Sharia court of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, said a few words about practical issues of joint opposition to radical Islam. However, at the moment when he conveyed greetings from Ramzan Kadyrov to the president, journalists were asked to leave Dmitry Medvedev alone with Muslim leaders.