CC BY
6
4 Climatic agenda 2030. Results of the Climate Conference in Paris 2015 r. Obligations review of member-states. http://russiancouncil.ru/climate2030 (access data: 04.07.2018).
51 Yulia Krasilnikova Norway will become a country of zero net emission by 2030. https://hightech.fm/2016/06/10/norway_zero_emissions. (Access data: 02.06.2018.)
6. The Global Green Economy Index 2016. P. 18.
7. Ibid., P. 50.
8. Ibid., P. 51.
9 Ibid., P. 51. For more on environmental health in Russia see: http://epi.yale.edu/country/russia (Access data: 15.02.2018.)
10. Project concepts of the federal law "On Volume control of Greenhouse Gases Emissions" is in the planning stage. Questions on support of projects on emission abatement (first of all programs of energy saving) and also the initiatives in the forest sector increasing absorption of greenhouse gases are considered. These measures are planned to be supported through tax remissions and the credits and also decreasing coefficients for depreciation of the equipment. The project has to be ready by the middle of 2019.
11. About the strategy of science and technology development of the Russian Federation. See: URL: http://docs.cntd.ru/document/420384257 (Access data: 26.01.2017.)
12. Climatic agenda 2030. Results of the Climate Conference in Paris 2015 r. Obligations review of member-states http://russiancouncil.ru/climate2030 (Access data: 04.07.2018.)
13. Ibid.
OLGA BIBIKOVA. ATTITUDES TOWARDS ISLAM IN HUNGARY // The article was written for the bulletin "Russia and the Moslem World."
Olga Bibikova,
PhD(History)/
Institute of Oriental Studies, RAS
Keywords: Hungary, European Union, Islam, refugees, Islamophobia.
Abstract: Hungary holds first place in anti-Islamic sentiments in Europe, despite the fact that there are very few Muslims living there. In 2016, about 400,000 refugees passed through the territory of that country, part of whom the European Council is trying to
settle in Hungary. However, the government of that country, taking into account the negative attitude of the local population toward Islam, refuses to accept them.
The PEW Research Center has conducted a poll on attitude to Islam in a number of European countries in order to establish quotas for East European countries to receive refugees. The results of the poll have shown that the most negative attitude to Islam was registered in Hungary. Seventy-two percent of its population spoke very negatively about adherents to that religion.
Perhaps, the reasons for this phenomenon lie in the country's history, which back at the time of its state formation was connected with peoples believing in Islam.
Hungary is a multinational state. Apart from Hungarians there live Gypsies, Germans, Jews, Romanians, Slovaks, Croatians, Serbians, Ukrainians, and others. According to population censuses from the year 1980, the number of pure Hungarians is dwindling. (In 1980 - 10 million 709 thousand, in 2017 - 9 million 770 thousand). The biggest national minority is the Gypsies (Roma).
In 1993 a Law on ethnic and national minorities was adopted. At the time 13 national minorities who have lived no less than one hundred years on the country's territory received the right to self-government.
Another specific feature of the Hungarian political system is the presence of considerable number of confessions. The Constitution of 1949 guaranteed religious freedom to all citizens of the country, at the same time having confiscated church property, closed down religious orders and nationalized parochial schools. The Law of 1900 confirmed the separation of the church from the state, declared the freedom of conscience and guaranteed financial support to religious communities. In 2011 a new Law on religious communities was adopted, according to which the state recognized only 14 religious communities (out of 358), which should number no less than 1,000 believers and have
functioned for more than twenty years. Thus, quite a few religious communities (including the Muslim ones) were declared illegitimate and they were deprived of financial support.
It is difficult to ascertain the exact number of Muslims in Hungary. The published figures differ from 26,000 to 62,000. The most precise data concern the Muslims who have arrived from Arab countries, Turkey, and Africa. There are a few ethnic Hungarians among Muslims (only 10 percent). However, the community is growing due to proselytes (mainly women who married foreign Muslims).
There are several Muslim communities in the country, but no uniform organization representing the interests of all Muslims. One of them - the Hungarian Islamic Community is headed by Zoltan Hajji Bolek. He is also President of the Society of study of Islamic history of Hungary. It is the biggest Muslim community in the country. It also includes descendants of the Bosnian Muslims, who arrived to Hungary at the time when Auster-Hungary annexed Bosnia.
Sulok Zoltan heads another Muslim community of Hungary -the Organization of Muslims of Hungary, which was formed on September 22, 2000. It is believed to be the successor to the Muslim student organization, which existed in Hungary from 1987. In Sulok Zoltan's view, the law adopted in 2011 would not influence the existence of the Muslim community, yet he admits that the mailbox of its mosque is full of letters with threats.
There is no mosque in Budapest until now and the building of the mosque during the Ottoman rule has long been turned over to the Catholic Church. In 2015, at the time of a great influx of migrants to Europe the Ambassador of Turkey to Hungary offered, on behalf of his government, financial help to the Mayor of Budapest, but he declined it.
The greater part of Muslims in the country lives in the capital of Hungary and in big cities. Hungarian Muslims note that Budapest is more tolerant to them than the provinces. In small towns Muslims come across anti-Muslim sentiments quite often.
During the recent mass movement of refugees from Turkey in Europe, 400,000 immigrants have passed through Hungary. The Hungarian mass media were full of photos of dirty roads littered with stale food products and garbage left by Muslim refugees. In some places there were clashes between refugees and local residents. The Hungarian authorities even ordered to erect barbed-wire blocks 175 kilometer-long and 4 meter-high. Then the border with Croatia was closed altogether. All these developments testified to and increased the growth of anti-Islamic sentiments, especially in places through which the crowds of immigrants have passed.
Hungary, just as other European countries, has been living through a demographic crisis. However, the Hungarian leaders are against compensating a shortage of the country's population by people of another culture and another faith. They held the view that the cohesion of the Hungarian nation is largely based on Christianity. Viktor Orban, Hungary's Premier, calls the intrusion of refugees to the European continent "the Trojan horse of terrorism." In an interview to the German Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung he said that "most refugees are Muslims, and this poses a threat to the identity of the Christians of Europe." In 2012 a new Constitution of Hungary came into force. Its Preamble spoke at length of the Hungarian people's adherence to the Christian roots, and also of their contribution to the defense of Europe from the invaders' encroachments. Apart from that, it confirmed the role of Christianity as a factor uniting the Hungarian nation, which fact can be regarded as a manifestation of non-admission of other religions. Certain premises of the Constitution directly contradict contemporary European values.
Budapest regards it unjust, as it has previously, the abruption of part of its territory from Great Hungary. Hungary has territorial claims practically to all of its neighbor-states. Its differences with the European Union made the Hungarian elite revise foreign-policy vectors. The country's leadership made a
stake on the revival of traditional values (which was reflected in the Constitution of 2012).
Simultaneously, a new concept about the "Turan" origin of the Hungarian people has been put forward. The idea was not new, it was circulated by Armini Vamberi in the 19th century on the basis of philological investigations which confirmed the closeness of the Hungarian language to a group of Turkic languages. A special Hungarian-Turan foundation, which held a congress (the 3rd kurultai related to the Turkic linguistic group attended by representatives of 17 countries of the Turkic linguistic group. It is indicative that Marton Dendeshi, Vice-president of the party Jobbik Magyarorszagert Mozgalom and deputy head of the parliamentary committee on international affairs, said at a news conference that "Hungarians were more interested in searching for their ancient roots than in the vague theory of the Ugro-Finnic origin of their people. He said further: "We are not an isolated people. We should accept the Scytgian-Turan peoples and communities as our brothers and sisters."
It is interesting to note that certain Hungarian ultra-right-wing elements come out for Turkey joining the European Union. They maintain that Europe should not become a "Christian club." Moreover, Gabor Vona, the leader of "Jobbik," stated that "Islam is the last ray of hope for mankind in the darkness of globalism and liberalism." In actual fact, those who accuse the Hungarian right-wing elements of a turn from the Ugro-Finnic world to the Turkic world, do not understand the essence of the problem." The deputy to Hungarian parliament from the "Jobbik" party Istwan Savai explained it in the following way: "The Finnic-Ugro theory was invented by Austrian scholars in order to suppress the Hungarian identity. We are not against the Finnic-Ugro relationship, but we make this theory part of a broader concept of the origin of the ancient Hungarians from the Turan peoples. We wish to change the established view of Finnic-Ugro relationship and prove the theory of the Hun origin of our ancestors.
There can hardly be any hope for a change in the Hungarian leadership's attitude to Islam and Muslims, because the Muslim countries inevitably put forward the demand to build or restore mosques and open madrasahs as the primary condition. Perhaps, the idea of the Turan origin will help establish relations with certain Asian countries, and will also give Budapest an opportunity to play the role of a representative of a big group of countries where Turkish communities live.
References
PEW Research Center. https://aftershock.news/?q=node/590871&full. Sociologists called the most xenophobic country in Europe. 23.07.2016. http://novorusmir.ru/archives/14623.
Numerical strength of Hungarian population - http://countrymeters.info/ ru/Hungary.
Timea A. How the Muslim Community Lives in the Very Center of Europe. http://www.ansar.ru/analytics/chem-zhivet-musulkmanskaya-obshchina-v-samom-cersdce-evropy. 09.12.2013.
Available sources helped collected material about two communities, although four communities are mentioned. Possible, these communities exist in big cities.
Bauer Fr. La communaute musulmane de Budapest rejetee malgre sa
discretion. Cafebabel. 19.01.2016. http://www.cafebabel.fr/
Le Monde. 04.09.2015. http://www.lemonde.fr/europe/article/2015/09/04/
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Les musulmans,un danger pourL'Europe selon la Hongrie 5.09.2015
https://www.saphirnews.com/Les-musukmans-un-danger-pour-l-Europe-
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Arminy Wambery (1832-1913) - Hungarian scholar of the Orient, polyglot. New nationalism in Hungary. Httpo://so-l.runews/y/2024_02_12_ noviy_nacionalism_v_vengrii.
Why Do Hungarians Need Turanism? http://gumilev-center.ru/zachem-vengram-turanism/ 11.12.2013.
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