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Aider Bulatov,
Ph. D. (Phil.), Director of the Crimean Center of Islamic Studies ISLAM IN THE CRIMEA: FROM TRAGIC PAST TO CONTEMPORARY PROBLEMS
Religion has played a major role in the development of culture of the Crimean peoples. Christianity and Islam are the two traditional religions on the territory of the Crimean Peninsula. The inclusion of the Crimea in the Golden Horde in the first half of the 13 th century led to the Islamization of most peoples living there, and for almost seven centuries Islam was the state religion of the Crimean Khanate, which preserved its complete or partial independence for about three centuries.
The inclusion of the Crimea in the Russian Empire did not practically influence the structure of the Muslim clergy. According to the Imperial Manifesto issued by Catherine the Great, the entire system of Muslim religious structure of the Crimea was put under the control of the Russian Empire. In 1788 the Russian Empire set up the Tauric Muslim spiritual board headed by the mufti . The board consisted of five clergymen which received salary from the state. By the end of the 18th century there were about 1,600 mosques functioning in the Crimea and 25 madrasahs, apart from a broad network of Muslim elementary schools. But the imperial authorities pursued a policy of ousting the Crimean Tatar population from their ancestral lands, which was the reason for the mass emigration of Crimean Tatars to Turkey and considerable depopulation of towns and villages, and this, in turn, caused the closing down of many mosques, madrasahs and schools. By 1914 there were only 729 mosques functioning on the peninsula, and the number of the clergy diminished to one-fifth and consisted of
only 942 men. The establishment of Soviet power in the Crimea dealt a heavy blow at the Muslim population on the peninsula. The policy of the Soviet state in the religious sphere during the entire Soviet period of Crimean history was similar to that in the entire Soviet state. It was aimed at closure of the functioning religious organizations, expropriation of their land and buildings, and liquidation of their property. The system of Islamic institutions in the Crimea was abolished already in the first years of Soviet power. In 1921 there were 470 Muslim organizations registered in the Crimea, whereas during the period from 1944 to 1989 there was not a single Muslim religious organization functioning on the peninsula. As a result of Stalin's reprisals practically the entire Muslim clergy was wiped out. In 1944, after the deportation of the Crimean Tatars, Islam ceased to exist in the Crimea.
Islamic identity has always played an important role in the ethnic mobilization of the Crimean Tatars and in the formation of their national self-consciousness and ethnic culture. During the almost 50 year exile in the conditions of totalitarian atheist regime, the Crimean Tatar people succeeded in preserving their religiousness at the level of traditions and everyday customs and habits. At the present stage of the national revival of the Crimean Tatar people and their return from places of deportation to their historical Motherland the problem of their religious revival and the study of the sources of their history and culture inseparable from Islamic traditions are especially timely. The Muslim population in the modern Crimea is represented primarily by Crimean Tatars and some other peoples believing in Islam: Volga Tatars, Azerbaijanis, Uzbeks, Turks, and Caucasian and other peoples, comprising about 11 percent of the population of the peninsula.
After returning to their historical Motherland, the process of the religious revival of the Crimean Tatar people has begun: new mosques have been built, Islamic institutions reinstated, and many people enrolled in religious courses or spiritual schools (madrasahs). In the past two decades Islam has become a real factor of public life in the Crimea. At present the Crimean umma numbers about 300,000 Muslims, its overwhelming part being Crimean Tatars. At first, the returnees had no financial, material, religious or personnel resources, thus, there could be no talk of the construction of mosques and revival of Islamic institutions in the Crimea. Naturally, the Crimean Muslims had to turn to Muslim states, primarily Turkey and the Arab East, which readily responded to their appeals for help. The first Muslim communities in the Crimea were registered in 1988, and in 1990 the Kadiate of Muslims of the Crimea was set up under the aegis of the Spiritual Board of Muslims of the European part of the U.S.S.R. and Siberia. A year later, on August 31, 1992, the All-Crimean conference of Muslim communities was held in Simferopol, which included the muftiate of Crimean Muslims.
The peak of the activity of Muslim communities in the Crimea was reached in the 1991-1995 period. For example, in 1995 the number of registered religious organizations comprised 52. As a result of active interaction with clerical centers in Muslim countries construction of new mosques and return and restoration of old ones was underway. New Muslim educational institutions were opened.
On November 18, 1995 the Kurultai (congress) of Crimean Muslims was held and the new mufti was elected - Nuri Mustafayev, an active supporter of the participation of the Muslim community in solving political tasks of the national movement of the Crimean Tatars.
The second Kurultai of Crimean Muslims, which took place on December 4, 1999, elected Emirali Ablayev Chairman of the Spiritual Board of Muslims of the Crimea.
Spiritual Board of Muslims of the Crimea. There is no clear-cut division into spiritual and secular spheres in Islam. The Majlis of the Crimean Tatar people is the representative organ of Crimean Tatars in charge of all questions connected with the restoration in the Crimea of the Tatar national statehood, culture, the language and religion. The Majlis exercises control over the activity of the Spiritual Board of Muslims of the Crimea.
In accordance with the Charter, the Spiritual Board of Muslims of the Crimea is a self-governed religious association of Crimean Muslims on the territory of Ukraine.
Council of Spiritual Board of Muslims of Crimea (Shura)
consists of members of the muftiate, chairman of the auditing commission of Muslims of the Crimea, chairman of the Majlis of the Crimean Tatar people, and 22 regional imams of the Crimea. It has complete legislative and judicial power.
The Mufti is the head of Muslims of the Crimea elected by the Kurultai of Crimean Muslims. He is also the chairman of the Spiritual Board of Muslims of the Crimea.
Kurultai of Muslims of the Crimea is the highest body of the Spiritual Board of the Muslims of the Crimea. It adopts decisions on the unity of spiritual communities, approves reports of the Muftiate, changes and endorses the Charter of the Spiritual Board, elects the Mufti and his deputies. At present the system of Muslim institutions includes Muslim spiritual educational establishments (madrasahs) and Sunday schools attached to mosques.
Islam is the second numerically biggest confession on the territory of the present-day Crimea, after the Ukrainian Christian Orthodox church of the Moscow Patriarchate.
Stable Muslim associations of ten and more people grouped around the imam and his assistants function practically in every populated center of the Crimean Tatar population and perform traditional Muslim rites.
Muslim communities have at their disposal 283 cult buildings, most of them have been built anew. In recent years the active construction of mosques has practically been halted, which could be explained by the higher building cost. In contrast to previous years, the number of new mosques is growing by not more than one or two annually.
Muslim spiritual educational institutions (madrasahs) and
their activity officially are under control of the Spiritual Board of Muslims of the Crimea. Their curriculum includes the foundations of Islamic religion, religious rites, and the rules of reading the Koran. Much attention is given to the problems of religious education. Parallel with studies at these establishments, pupils are to attend lessons at general educational schools, institutes of higher learning, or technical secondary schools.
During the initial stage of repatriation (1990-1995) Crimean Tatars received Islamic education at Islamic universities of Azerbaijan, Russia, Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The biggest groups of them went to Turkey to study at universities there.
Later the Spiritual Board deemed the studies abroad ineffective and the Crimean autonomy began to open its own spiritual Muslim educational institutions.
One of the first such institutions in the Crimea was "Seit-Settaf madrasah in the city of Simferopol attached to a 19th century mosque
returned to the Muslim community "Seit-Settar." It has been functioning since 1993 as a Sunday school; among its pupils are about 20 men and women of different age.
The madrasah "K'alai" (Azov lyceum of higher Islamic sciences) is one of the leading spiritual Muslim educational establishments of the Crimea. The construction of a complex of buildings of the mosque and lyceum began in 1993. About 110 boys and girls from Crimean Tatar families from 13 to 17 years of age study at this madrasah. Nearly half the teaching staff is Crimean Tatars who have received religious education in Turkey. The other half is Turkish teachers.
The madrasah "K'urman" is situated in Krasnogvardeisky district and is a branch of the Azov madrasah. It is a boarding school at which children of 12 to 14 live and study. They also attend an evening general school with a view to getting a full secondary education.
The Simferopol Higher Islamic Madrasah is housed in a building bought by the International Islamic Development Bank and presented to the Spiritual Board of Muslims of the Crimea. It started work in 2003. Just as at the Azov madrasah, its curriculum includes both religious and secular subjects. But, regrettably, there are not enough high-quality teachers and instructors. It is also a boarding school where up to twenty boys live and study. They have an opportunity to attend classes at other educational establishments, if they wish. This madrasah has several affiliations near Simferopol in the Crimea.
Khafiz madrasah is situated in the settlement of Davydovka, Simferopol district, and prepares clergymen specializing in reading the Koran and quoting from it. The madrasah started work in 2002 with support from Sheikh Abdallah al-Mubarak as-Subakh of Kuwait. This madrasah is the only khafiz teaching center in Ukraine. There are nineteen boy students who also study at a general school.
In all, there are up to two hundred students studying in five madrasahs of various type in the Crimea.
There are sixty Sunday schools functioning at several mosques on the peninsula. Among its teachers are local imams and Turkish missionaries.
Analyzing the composition and work of all these Islamic educational institutions in the Crimea it should be admitted that very few of them are self-sufficient and self-regulated cells within the system of the Muslim religious structure. Unfortunately, the traditional Muslim custom, according to which parishioners donate means for the maintenance of these schools and upkeep of their staff, has not become widespread in the Crimea. Most Crimean Muslim communities rely, as before, on assistance from various religious centers in foreign countries. This was why the revived Crimean umma has become so susceptible to the influence of the outside forces and turned into a broad field of activity for foreign Muslim missionaries. Religious preachers arrive mainly from Turkey.
Missionary work is always competitive, because a serious struggle is going on for people's souls, the formation of their outlook and introduction of the religious doctrine adhered to by one or another religious organization. As a result of the work of foreign religious centers there are now several religious trends formed in the Crimean Muslim community of dozens of thousands of people.
The development of ties between the Spiritual Board of Muslims of the Crimea and Majlis, on the one hand, and foreign Islamic centers, as well as the Muslim charity organizations functioning in the Crimea, on the other, and also the monopoly control of Majlis over these ties contributed to the growing process of the politicization of Islam on the peninsula. A virtual struggle for Islam in the Crimea has unfolded between Turkish and Arab religious centers. One of the Turkish
scholars of Islam entitled his article about this as "Clash Between Turkey and Saudi Arabia in the Crimea."
It should be noted that the leadership of Majlis and Muftiate of the Crimean Tatars prefers the "Turkish way" of the revival of Islam in the Crimea. This choice can be explained by the fact that the secular system of Turkey makes it possible to subordinate religious matters to ethnic ones. Besides, the Crimean Tatars are closely connected with Turkey by the language, and also a big number of their fellow-compatriots living there now. The monopoly role of Turkey in the restoration process of Islam in the Crimea has time and again been recognized by the Crimean Tatar leaders.
It should be admitted that the Islamic traditions of the Crimean Tatars differ from those of Turkey. For example, Crimean Muslims prefer to wear European clothes, but not traditional Islamic clothes, they put up monuments to their deceased, etc., which is not accepted by orthodox Islam.
The leadership of the Spiritual Board of Muslims of the Crimea and Majlis, while preferring the Turkish religious school, maintains at the same time broad relations with Arab Islamic centers. Thus, along with considerable Turkish influence on Crimean Muslims, there is growing control over their spiritual life on the part of various nongovernmental Islamic organizations closely connected through different independent Islamic foundations with the special services of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.
The activity of foreign religious centers in the Crimea has created grounds for the emergence of an original socio-cultural choice by the Muslim umma of the Crimea of the most acceptable system of religious values for solving the fundamental task of the revival of the Islamic heritage. The essence of this choice facing Crimean Muslims is the
need for the recognition by the Crimean umma of one of the political models of its mutual connections with the world of globalized Islam.
Today the Muslim umma of the Crimea is divided into several religious currents. Usually, there are four or five basic Muslim trend in the Crimea: Salafite, Khabashite, "Khizb-ut-Tahrir," and others, which act as autonomous Muslim communities.
International activity of the Spiritual Board of Muslims of the Crimea boils down to maintaining close relations with religious organizations of Turkey. The Mufti of Crimean Muslims E. Ablayev often visits Turkey where he meets responsible officials of the Ministry for religious affairs and discusses with them construction projects of mosques, a well as educational and publishing activity. In turn, representatives of the Ministry for religious affairs, along with teachers and instructors from Islamic universities, visit the Crimea and take part in the celebrations of Prophet Mohammed's Birth anniversary. They also attend competitions for the beast reader of the Koran which are held among Crimean madrasah students. Turkish religious experts, jointly with teachers of theology at Turkish universities, organize seminars for Crimean imams.
Countries of the Arab East render considerable assistance in training Muslim personnel. For instance, they help prepare hafiz (readers of the Koran by heart). The World Organization for the study of the Koran from Saudi Arabia takes part in this work in the city of Simferopol. The Spiritual Board of Muslims of the Crimea is a permanent member of the Eurasian Islamic Council, and also a member of the international organization "World Islamic Appeal."
The Council of muftis of Ukraine was formed in April 2009 at the State Committee for the affairs of nationalities and religion of Ukraine. Although this committee was abolished a year later, the
Council of muftis continued its work. Among its duties is organization of the annual hajj of Ukrainian Muslims to Mecca.
Muslim mass media include two Muslim religious newspapers in the Crimean Tatar language printed in three thousand copies. Two pages of one of them are in Russian. In 2009 the Spiritual Board of Muslims of the Crimea opened its official Internet-site (http://www.qirimmuftiyat.org.ua/).
The Muslim community of the Spiritual Board of Muslims of the Crimea "Alushta" is the founder and sponsor of the All-Crimean sociopolitical newspaper "Vozrozhdeniye" ("Revival"), which is published in Russian in 15,000 copies. The newspaper contains historical articles about Islam in the Crimea, news of the Muslim world, information about the economy and financial system of the western world, including the United States. The newspaper has an information-educational character, but experts note its propensity to the ideology of the religious-political "Khizb-ut-Tahrir" party.
Social significance of the activity of Muslim religious organizations is one of the positive factors of the work of Muslim communities in the Crimea. Many of them gave pride of place to humanitarian and charity work - help to children, the sick and the poor. Humanitarian actions are timed to important Muslim holidays - Uraza-bairam and Kurban-bairam. Muslim communities also collect donations for sick children, orphans and large families.
Interconfessional relations include legalization and territorial distribution of the leading world religions - Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and also revival of the autochthonous religion of the Karaites. After the seven decades of the atheist rule, the Crimean autonomy had to tackle new problems in the sphere of interconfessional and state-confessional relations.
After 1995 the first signs of the exacerbation of interconfessional relations between the Orthodox Christian communities and the Muslim umma have emerged in the Crimea. The growing politicization of the confessional component in Crimean society formed the basis of this exacerbation. Against this backdrop the sphere of conflict between the Orthodox Christian and Muslim communities, as well as between the bodies of state power and Muslim religious organizations emerged.
The reasons for conflicts differed and were mainly connected with economic, political and ethno-cultural aspects.
As to the relations between the Orthodox Christian and Muslim communities, there was a growing discord between the Christian majority and the Muslim minority. At first, the relations between the two confessions were based on mutual tolerance. The Mufti of the Crimean Muslims S. Ibragimov, jointly with the Archbishop of Simferopol and the Crimea Lazar became cochairmen of the Interconfessional Council set up in November 1992, whose main aim was "coordination of an interconfessional dialogue in the Crimea."
However, some time later conflict-breeding factors began to emerge, the first being preparations for the 2000th anniversary of the Birth of Jesus Christ. The Simferopol and Crimean eparchy organized mass actions connected with putting up of big crosses near populated centers and on main highways, disregarding the religious views of local inhabitants. Putting up crosses and posters with the inscription "Crimea - Cradle of Orthodox Christianity" showed the desire of the Russian Orthodox church to emphasize its exclusive position and dominating influence on the peninsula, which was negatively met by its Muslim population. More and more crosses and posters were installed without consultation with representatives of the Muslim community, which was received by Crimean Tatars as an ostentatious challenge to Muslims.
There have been various incidents connected with the installation of crosses at different places and various manifestations of xenophobia which seriously aggravated the interethnic and interconfessional relations in the Crimea.
Problems of Islamophobia and xenophobia have been a serious matter since the 1990s. Incidents provoked by them have become a frequent phenomenon on the peninsula. The publication of various materials provoking interethnic tension and enmity by the local mass media has largely contributed to the emergence and existence of this factor. Anti-Tatar, anti-Islamic and anti-Semitic publications are quite frequent in the Crimea. The newspaper Krymskaya Pravda is a case in point. The Crimean Autonomous Republic has become the leader in xenophobic, Islamophobic and anti-Semitic manifestations and tendencies in the entire post-Soviet area. These shameful events intolerable for the civilized world of the 21st century sometimes take the form of monstrous acts of vandalism. More than fifty acts of vandalism against ethnic cultural monuments, cemeteries and religious shrines have been committed since 1995. Anti-Islamic and radical Cossack units, pseudo-Russian "patriotic" organizations and fascist thugs have committed a good many crimes aimed at destabilizing the situation in the Crimea by provoking clashes between the Slav and Crimean Tatar people, between Orthodox Christianity and Islam. These provocative actions of the chauvinistic forces have not been rebuffed properly so far, and this can largely be explained by the peaceful nature and tolerance of Islam.
State-confessional relations in the Crimea are distinguished by a considerable increase of the influence of religion on the public life of the Crimea. The mass media, which are an important instrument in the hands of various political forces, have now been using religion for their aims more effectively.
The authority of religion is now an instrument for the legalization of certain ideological and political programs. Politicians are striving to emphasize their adherence to one or another religion and coming out as sponsors of various religious projects, thus receiving an additional moral and mobilizing resource. The greater function of religion in politics makes it not only a resource of power, but also an unofficial source of power. Religious figures themselves become part of the political class (the power elite) on whom the adoption of some or other decisions depends in certain cases. During field work in the Crimea we have found that in some cases, the blessing of Orthodox Christian hierarchs helped people to receive land from local authorities. Religious figures perform rites at official ceremonies at military units, law-enforcement agencies and prisons, educational institutions, bodies of state power, etc. In such cases religion of the majority of people is taken as one's own religion. Orthodox Christianity plays the role of faith by default. The city authorities act quite consciously when they prevent the increase in the number of Muslim religious symbols in public places. One of the most vivid examples of such policy was the decision of the municipal authorities of Simferopol to refuse to grant a plot of land for the construction of a cathedral mosque in one of the city streets.
For more than ten years the Simferopol municipal authorities have refused to comply with the lawful right of Muslims to build their temples in the capital of the autonomy, thus discriminating their fellow-citizens of Muslim faith. This fact caused numerous protest actions organized by the Crimean Muftiate. Representatives of the Slav population answered them with the printing and distribution of leaflets of anti-Tatar and anti-Muslim character.
It should be noted that the confrontation between state power and Muslim communities has emerged contrary to the existing state laws
and legal acts regulating the state-confessional relations and the decree of the President of Ukraine on the relations between the state and religious organizations of March 21, 2002. Paradoxically, it is government officials who aggravate the situation by creating artificial obstacles for Muslim communities to receive plots of land to build mosques. This concerns, primarily, the capital of the autonomy and costal towns. If the existing state of affairs continues, the situation in the region will be fraught with the danger of a confrontation and conflicts between Muslims and Orthodox Christians
The Crimean authorities should take a firm position and adopt and implement measures to preclude any manifestations of national or religious exclusiveness or intolerance toward people of another nationality or faith. Taking into account the specific features of the Crimea, one of the main tasks facing the local authorities should be the creation of the real climate and principles of peaceful coexistence on the peninsula of the Russian and ethno-national communities.
The policy of state power in the sphere of interethnic and interconfessional relations should lead to the thorough understanding that the peoples living in the Crimea do not pose a threat to one another and their joint existence on the peninsula should always be comfortable for each person, irrespective of his or her nationality or faith. These principles should form the basis of the formation of the Crimean regional community. Otherwise, the aim of xenophobic and anti-Semitic groupings will be achieved, and the Crimea will inevitably fall into the abyss of interethnic and religious conflicts. As we can see, the
first steps in this direction have already been made.
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The Crimean Muslims are not only Muslim communities, imams of mosques, madrasah and university students and their teachers, but
also scientists and scholars, men of culture and the art, businessmen, athletes, and simply tens of thousands of decent and law-abiding citizens, and kind-hearted men and women. The Crimean Tatar people have been living through a difficult time after their return from the places of deportation. They need not only assistance from the government of Ukraine, but also tactful attitude of the rank-and-file Crimean citizens who should understand that their neighbors can speak their native language, have their own religion, culture, customs and traditions. The Crimean Tatars connect their future with Ukraine and are striving for stability, interethnic and interconfessional peace and prosperity of numerous peoples living on Crimean soil and the preservation of statehood of Ukraine as a guarantee of their further progress.
It can safely be said today that the Crimean Tatar people returning to their historical Motherland, people with a rich Muslim culture, are an inalienable part of Ukrainian society. Their national movement and religious associations are in search for optimal forms of self-government within the framework of Ukrainian statehood and the republican Constitution. During the twenty years of the independence of Ukraine and the exceptional liberalism of Ukrainian legislation "On freedom of conscience and religious organizations" the Crimean Tatars were able to lay the foundation of their religious revival. With due account of the historical, ethnic and confessional specific features of Muslims, conditions can be created in the Crimean autonomy for realization of spiritual requirements of citizens, the right to embrace religion and perform religious rites, and the preservation of religious originality of the ethnic groups of the population.
The Spiritual Board of Muslims of the Crimea is faced with the task of smoothing down the existing intra-Muslim contradictions through a dialogue with its religious opponents, the absence of which at
present poses a threat to unity not only of the Muslim umma, but also to the entire Crimean Tatar people. The problems of the fuller satisfaction of the spiritual requirements of the Crimean Muslims, return of former Muslim religious objects, and construction of new mosques, primarily the long-awaited cathedral mosque in the Crimean capital Simferopol, are of crucial importance. It is necessary that Crimean Muslims make a contribution to the strengthening of the international positions of Ukraine in the context of its Euro-integration desires. Solution to all these problems requires, above all, the formation and endorsement of state strategy of further progress of Muslim revival. Islam, with its peace-loving essence, can play the role of a stability factor in the Crimea, which will raise the international image and status of Ukraine in the eyes of the world community. As to the Crimean Tatar people, Islam will always be the factor of firm unity, spirituality and high culture.
"Islam v SNG", Moscow - Nizhni Novgorod, 2011, No 415, pp. 54-65.
E. Borodin,
Ph. D. (Econ.), Institute of Regional Politics KYRGYZSTAN IN THE CONTEXT OF WORLD ECONOMY AND POLITICS
The geographical position and a rather weak economic potential of Kyrgyzstan determine its dependence on its bigger neighbors. The geographical division of the republic into the North and the South and the absence of the transport infrastructure for the connection of its regions determine the multidirectional vector of the economic and political orientation of various parts of the republic. The North of Kyrgyzstan is closely connected with neighboring Kazakhstan and
