There will be no New Year in Dagestan

Many Dagestan children are not expecting Santa Claus this year—more than a thousand schools in the region will not celebrate the New Year. Islamic activists are campaigning against the holiday, and official clergy believe it is not the most important issue for Muslims. But compared to last year, the anti-New Year campaign in Dagestan this year is a little quieter - booklets with a crossed out Christmas tree are no longer distributed in public places, and the local press does not write about the sinfulness of the celebration.

Last year, almost 70% of schools in the republic did not celebrate the New Year. A PublicPost correspondent visited several Makhachkala schools where Santa Claus is not expected.

Onegin does not behave like a Muslim

It is not so easy to get to the secondary school in Shamkhal, a suburban village of Makhachkala. The director immediately refused the meeting and the interview, and the guards will not let you in, even if you are the brother of a student or the father. I don’t introduce myself as a journalist - I’ve already been kicked out of two schools.

As a result, teacher Marzhanat Umarova, who worked here in 2010, took me through. She resigned after the murder of the previous director, Patimat Magomedova, who actively opposed students wearing the hijab. “Many in the village said that Patimat Magomedovna was going against Islam, that Allah would punish her,” recalls Marzhanat. “She herself was a believing Muslim, wore a headscarf. She was simply outraged that even first-graders came to lessons in a hijab, refused to draw people and animals, supposedly this is a sin in Islam after Patimat Magomedovna was shot at her home, several school employees who supported her quit.”

Marzhanat introduces me to her friend Aishat - she’s new to school, but already wants to quit. “There are a lot of religious people living in Shamkhal, well, Salafis, who strictly adhere to Islamic rules,” says Aishat. “And their children somehow stand out at school, or something. I work with the younger ones, and it’s not so difficult with them. But here Some teachers are sometimes afraid to make comments to high school students. Students do not come to singing lessons because they say that music is haram, a sin. One student, for example, refused to read “Eugene Onegin.” He said that the hero does not behave according to Islam. can be an example for others, and this is bad. Students sometimes run away from lessons, they say, if you make a remark once again, 15-year-old students get up and leave lessons, but at the same time they tell the teacher: “You are going against Islam, you will be punished.” Allah." Understand them what they mean by "Allah will punish." For many idiots, religion has become a cover for poor academic performance."

"New Year is not our holiday"

Aishat and I are going to our fourth grade lesson. There are many children in the class. There are girls in hijab, and headscarves, and without headdresses. Several boys are sitting in skullcaps.

Aishat introduces me as an inspector from the Ministry of Education.

There is a Russian language lesson in progress. Essay on the theme "Winter". I sit down next to the boy in the skull cap.

- What is your name?

- Ahmed.

- Difficult essay?

- No.

— What do you like to do most in winter?

— The boys and girls and I play snowballs and make a snowman.

— Do you like receiving gifts?

- Yes.

—Are you expecting a lot of gifts for the New Year?

— New Year is not our holiday. There are gifts for Eid al-Adha.

- Why don’t you celebrate the New Year?

— My father said that this is a haram (sinful - editor's note) holiday and Muslims should not celebrate it.

- Would you like a New Year yourself?

- Don't know.

Almost the same conversation took place with three other students. 11 out of 18 children wrote in their essays that they celebrate the New Year in winter and expect gifts from Santa Claus.

Makhachkala school No. 17 is preparing to celebrate the New Year. School director Aida Babatova says that there will be matinees for the junior classes and parties for the seniors. The director does not answer the question about the ban on celebrating the New Year in Islam - he only says that “everything will go fine, as in previous years.”

It was not possible to meet with the director of school No. 13. The secretary said that they would celebrate the New Year at school: “If religion bothers someone, then don’t let them come—we don’t force them.”

Muslims care less about corruption

It is officially believed that last year, out of 1,690 Dagestan schools, 1,206 did not celebrate the New Year due to the fact that the residents of the republic themselves came up with such an initiative.

This year, everything is ready in schools for the meeting of Father Frost, Yanzhagi Gamzatov, senior engineer of the Supervisory Activities Directorate of the Ministry of Emergency Situations for Dagestan, assured PublicPost: “Well, what kind of parties can there be in schools? Everyone is ready for matinees, we allowed them to be held. What kind of parties are there in schools? happen?"

The Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Dagestan remains neutral on this issue, Muftiate press secretary Magomedrasul Omarov told PublicPost: “Every year they create a stir around this New Year. Yes, according to Islam it is impossible to celebrate it. But in Dagestan many dates are celebrated that do not correspond to Islam. Why? “Is it the New Year that some people focus on? Because it’s a massive one, yes. The clergy’s alims and imams tell parishioners that it is undesirable for Muslims to celebrate non-Islamic dates, because this issue creates unnecessary noise.”

Dagestani Muslims have much more important questions, Omarov believes: “The issues of corruption, for example, are acute in the republic. Why don’t those who record videos against the New Year raise this issue? If we talk about what is important to Muslims and what is not , then the New Year’s issue definitely doesn’t come first. They just score points on it.”

"Like monkeys we imitate the pagans"

This year, famous and not so famous Dagestanis even recorded a video about why Dagestanis should not celebrate the New Year. The video also contains passages such as “this is a pagan holiday, and we, like monkeys and parrots, imitate the pagans.”

It is mainly young people who are against celebrating the New Year, Ruslan Gereev, head of the Center for Islamic Studies, told PublicPost: “This holiday is not Islamic, it is alien. The older generation has simply gotten used to it. And young people, who in recent years in the republic have been actively joining religious life, does not accept the New Year. In Dagestan, it is believed that it is the Salafis who are against the New Year. But this is not so. The Sufis are also against it, and the Salafis are more active. falls under a storm of indignation from secular Dagestanis. Whatever epithets they bestow on him even reach the criminal.”

But Gereev agrees with the muftiate: he also believes that campaigning against the New Year is not the most important issue for Muslims.

The doors of thousands of schools are closed to Santa Claus

It was not possible to get comments about the New Year celebration in schools from the Ministry of Education and Science of Dagestan - all the department officials were either at meetings or busy with visitors. An employee of the Ministry of Education, on condition of anonymity, told PublicPost that this year, more than a thousand schools in the republic will not celebrate the New Year: “Last year, a big scandal arose around this issue. This year, the ministry received instructions from the government of the republic to report that all schools will celebrate. We know that more than thousands of schools will not hold parties there, there will not even be any matinees. The best students will be celebrated, and that’s it.”