Islam
in Russia - III
By Dr. Rizwana Rahim
Chicago, IL
Apart
from North Caucasus and Volga-Ural areas, substantial
populations of Muslims live in cities like Moscow
and St. Petersburg, east of Ural mountains and
elsewhere.
Moscow has the largest Muslim population of any
city in Russia, or in entire Europe. The estimates
vary, but latest census shows that nearly two
million Muslims live in Moscow, a city of 12 million.
That is, one in every six Moscow residents is
a Muslim. Muslim presence here dates back to the
12th century – actually to the beginning
of the city itself, when the native population
first met "besermen," those who profess
to be Muslim. Most Moscow Muslims follow Hanafism,
but there is a strong representation of Shafi’ism
too, mostly from Dagestani who have settled here.
During the Soviet years when mosques and other
religious institutions were being destroyed or
appropriated by the state and used for other purposes
(storage house, prisons, etc), the Central (or
Cathedral) Mosque, built over a century ago by
a Tatar millionaire, was the ONLY registered mosque
in Moscow. It remained functional throughout its
history, but that perhaps had more to do as a
token for the people from Muslim embassies and
visiting politicians from Muslim countries than
anything significant. The only time its existence
was seriously threatened was before the 1980 Olympics
when, because of its proximity to the Olympic
sites and fearful of riots, people wanted to tear
it down. But that didn’t happen because
of the opposition from the Muslim world. It is
too small to contain the worshippers who during
Friday and Eid prayers often get spilled over
on the lawns and the streets.
This overcrowding is unacceptable to the Dagestani
Shaf’ii group of Moscow, because it believes
that in the prayers, there should be no physical
barrier (even a door) between the Imam and the
rest of the group performing prayers. They are
constructing a mosque in the name of ‘Imam
Shamil’ which is supposed to be the biggest
in Moscow and would accommodate 5,000 worshippers.
Another result of increased interest in Islam
was the opening in 1994 of a four-year Muslim
college in Moscow. Twenty students are currently
enrolled in a four-year program which includes
both religious Muslim and the secular curriculum.
Since 1991, three more mosques were constructed.
Now, in addition to re-modeling these four to
increase the capacity, there are plans to construct
11 more in the city, with funding assistance from
Iran and other countries. President Putin is not
too enthused about it because he suspects this
will bring in fundamentalist and extremists too.
Moscow’s Mayor Yuri Luzhkov is equally concerned
and doesn’t want the situation to get ethnically
more threatening.
In St. Petersburg, Russia’s most European
city and the capital of tsarist Russia, where
there has been a large Muslim population for over
a century, the first official mosque was founded
in 1910 (before WW1). Even though they had been
asking for one for 30 years, Nicholas II granted
permission, though over much objection. It was
to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the rule
of Abdul Ahat Khan, Emir of Bukhara. The chosen
site was close to the Peter and Paul Fortress.
The mosque (a dome with two minarets) was patterned
after those in Central Asia; the dome resembles
the 15th century Gur Emir Mausoleum of Samarqand.
First prayer in this mosque in the northern Tsarist
Capital was held in 1913, to honor the 300th anniversary
of Russia's ruling Romanov family, and the regular
public worships were started in 1920. However,
in 1940 the Soviets banned religious services
and turned the building into a medical equipment
storehouse, but returned it in 1956. It is one
of the largest mosques in Europe, and for Eid
prayers and on other Islamic holy days, about
5,000 worshippers gather there to pray. Since
the collapse of the Soviet Union, other mosques
have been established in this city of 4.2 million.
Comparison with another suppressed minority, the
Jews
The history of Muslims is little different from
that of another traditionally harassed minority,
the Jews, who have lived on the northern borders
of the Black Sea since the first century AD. Most
Jews had come to Russia seeking refuge from their
persecution elsewhere in Western Europe, after
their expulsion from Spain in 1492 by Queen Isabella,
and from Poland after its partition. Though their
population reached a maximum of 1. 5 million by
the end of the 18th century, this was always much
smaller in size than the Muslim population.
Not unlike Muslims, the Jews also faced discrimination,
if not right from the beginning but certainly
during the tsarist regimes, with occasional relaxation
in the 19th century: Jews were restricted not
only to certain occupations (such as tax collection
and administration of the large agricultural estates)
but they were prohibited from owning land. Again,
unlike Jews who have been leaving Russia for other
places, Russian Muslims have no such plans, and
have in fact some have been returning from the
Republics that had opted out of the Union in 1991.
Because of anti-Semitism and other problems, Jewish
population in the Soviet Union had been declining
steadily. This increased remarkably after the
1974 Jackson-Vanik US Congressional Amendment
that offered the Soviet Union a most-favored-nation
status in return for the emigration of Soviet
Jews. There were some tense times in US-Soviet
relations, from 1979 (Soviet invasion of Afghanistan)
to 1989 (post-perestroika, -glasnost), but the
Jewish emigration (mostly to the US and Israel)
averaged about 65,000 per year (1992-1995) after
the highest level (188,000) in 1990. Only in 1996,
did the Russian government begin putting restrictions
on the Jewish Agency that has sponsored Jewish
emigration since the 1940s. Although, like Muslims,
more and more Jews are acknowledging and re-claiming
their religious identity and affiliations, Russian
Jewish population continues to decline. It was
officially recognized at 537,000, concentrated
as usual in mostly urban centers. In Moscow alone,
there once were between 200,000 to 300,000 Jews;
however, those who lived in Jewish autonomous
oblasts accounted for just a fraction (estimated
1,500 by 1995, down from 9,000, a few years ago).
New Russian constitution
In a radical departure from the Soviet era, Russia
allowed freedom of religion and its practice increasingly
since 1991. The new Constitution (1993, 1997)
gives Russia its democratic underpinnings. It
establishes that Russia is a secular state, with
no state religion and the religious associations
are to be treated equal under the law and separate
from the state, and that education is to be secular.
Still, one of the concerns has to do with restrictions
on organizations less than 15 years in operation
in Russia, and the ambiguities and contradicting
provisions for them. The government tried to clarify
it in October 1997, but not without raising further
concerns.
There are now 6,650 mosques in Russia, a remarkable
increase from 154 (according to Gainutdin) in
the entire Soviet Union (in 1985). More Muslim
religious educational institutions (68) now exist
than those of Orthodox Christianity (49), according
to an article in Komsomolskaya Pravda, this January,
as quoted by UPI. More Muslim communities and
institutions are now appearing in areas once considered
traditionally Russian, and Muslims in these communities
seem more vigorous than the Orthodox Christians.
This year, nearly 10,000 Russian Muslims (predominantly
from North Caucasus Republics) attended the Hajj,
a number consistently increasing since 1991. Most
of the Russian pilgrims go by bus which takes
about a week. Russian quota may be 20,000 (allowable
maximum of 0.1% of a country’s Muslim population).
Under Soviet communism, Hajj was banned, as well
as zakat and other religious traditions. Instead
of Hajj, Tatars and Bashkirs used to go to local
shrines.
Another important step that Russia took in August
2003 was to become a member of the Organization
of Islamic Conferences (OIC). By this, Putin not
only has committed to the protection and development
of Islam in Russia but also to increase co-operation
with other member nations.
Today and tomorrow
Muslims have nowhere to go, except to stay put
where they have lived for the past 14 centuries
or so. Some (Chechnya, prominently) want to secede,
just like others did in 1991, but not all Muslim
republics want that (Bashkirs, most of all). Russia
has been trying what’s been called ‘a
delicate balancing act’ in case of its own
Muslims, while keeping a cautious eye on its now
independent former Republics around it (‘near
abroad’), and foreign extremists (including
Wahabis), particularly after 9/11. Russia’s
battles with separatist Chechnya (twice blown
up in its face in the past decade) have been catastrophic,
and more trouble may lie ahead. Militant Muslim
opposition and terrorism (the so-called ‘Islamic
militants’) within its borders are part
of its ‘New Reality’. Beslan was Russia’s
own 9/11.
Muslims themselves are highly divided. Ethnic
and language identities are far thicker than the
religion itself and their philosophy toward it.
Volga-Urals is very different from North Caucasus;
they think very differently and take a different
approach to religion. Chechnya is NOT Tatarstan
or Bashkorostan, and both prefer stability to
secessionist strife; Chechnya is NOT its eastern
neighbor, Dagestan, either (Chechen militant leaders
invaded Dagestan to ‘liberate’ it
and caused much bloodshed). Volga-Ural Muslim
Republics are pre-dominantly moderate, follow
‘Jadid-ism’ (‘New Ways’)
or Euro-Islam’, practice what I’d
like to call, ‘Islam-lite’; they may
want more local control, but are not anxious to
secede, as Chechnya is. Dagestan has its own approach
-- little in common with its Muslim neighbor,
Chechnya, which it tries to studiously avoid,
more specifically in its dispute with Russia.
Dagestan itself has its internal battles between
the traditionalists (adherents of Sufism) and
‘extremist fundamentalists (imported ‘Wahhabism’)
that continue in mosques (e.g., the bloody violence
and vandalism in the old Juma Mosque in April
this year); Chechen supporters of local Wahhabis
even invaded Dagestan to liberate it from its
native traditionalists.
In 2000, President Putin thought aloud that if
extremism takes hold among the Muslims of the
Caucasus Republics, then it could spread to the
Volga-Ural region, which could result either in
the Islamization of Russia or in Russia’s
disintegration. In the wake of its own Beslan
(September 2004) and other terrorist incidents,
Chechen wars along with the US concerns since
September 11, 2001, this fear of extremist, radical
elements in Islam (often labeled ‘Wahhabis’)
has indeed filtered deep into the Russian society
(even among the Volga and Dagestani and other
North Caucasian Muslim communities). To ethnic
Russians, it’s not just Sufist or ‘Jadidist’
Islam, which is homegrown in Russia for long and
far more acceptable than the much feared, fundamentalist
‘Wahhabist’, exported from elsewhere.
In January 2005, the Levada Center released the
results of its latest poll of Russian attitudes
toward Islam. The results showed that ‘Islamophobia’
is alive and fairly wide-spread: (i) About 44
% of Russians were in favor of administrative
restrictions on the spread of Islam in Russia.
(ii) About 58 % of Russians now favor preventing
Muslims from the Caucasus and Central Asia regions
from coming to or staying in other Russian areas,
and (iii) Almost 20 % believed that Russian "skinheads"
were justified in attacking "southerners"
because of their involvement in terrorism.
Concluding remarks
Muslims and Islam are so deep rooted in Russia
that all attempts to suppress and drive them out
have failed. In fact, they have not only stayed
on but have also gotten stronger, at least in
numbers, if not politically. Muslims are NOT going
to leave the country, as the other minority (Jews)
has been doing. Ethnic Russians and Russian Muslims
will have to develop mutual respect and tolerance
in a democratic Russia. For the foreseeable future,
it looks like the Russian conflict arena might
be: ethnic Russians vs Muslims (Sufis/traditionalists,
Jadids/Euro-Islamists, Wahhabi/Fundamentalists)
as a whole or individual groups; or one Muslim
group vs another (Sufis vs Wahhabis; Jadidists
vs Wahhabis). Most Russian Muslims are not fundamentalists
or separatists (except, for Chechnya), but ethnic
and regional bonds among them seem far stronger
than a sense of ‘Ummah’.
Selected References (in addition to numerous sources
on the Internet) :
1. Islam in Russia: The Politics of Identity and
Security: Shireen T. Hunter Hardcover ISBN: 0-7656-1282-8,
592pp. Paper ISBN: 0-7656-1283-6 May, 2004.
2. Historical Atlas of the Islamic World : Malise
Ruthven, and Azim Nanji, ISBN 0-19-860997-3, 208
pages, Publication date: 9 September 2004
3. The Politics of Muslim Cultural Reform : Jadidism
in Central Asia. Adeeb Khalid, ISBN 0-520213564,
Paper Back, 1999.
4. A Clear and Present Danger: "Wahhabism"
as a Rhetorical Foil
by Alexander Knysh. Saudi-American Forum, Essay
Series #24, 14 November 2003
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