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of image creation under their control and constantly improve it. However, it is a paradox that all of the above mentioned persons and entities interested in their own image greatly sink in estimation, if the country, where they live and work, has a negative image.
"StrategiyaRossii", M., 2011, N1, p. 71-78.
V. Shapovalov, expert in Islam (Stavropol) RENAISSANCE OF ISLAM AND THE NEEDS IN ISLAMIC EDUCATION
For the last twenty years the rebirth of Islam was going on in an intensive way, and many experts had good grounds to regard it as a renaissance of Islam. This appraisal is substantiated by the following: rapid construction of mosques, good attendance by young people at public prayers on Friday, intention of thousands Russian ethnic Muslims to get Islamic education in foreign Islamic higher education institutions, creation of religious-cultural organizations, publishing and mass media centers, Islamic periodic publications etc.
The process of Islamic renaissance is complicated and contradictory, which is determined by a number of factors. The restoration of the social institution of Islamic religion is going on in the post-Soviet Russian society, where by the law of social-psychological inertia there function ideological norms of the Communist doctrine greatly distorted in Soviet Russia. For the second part of the XIX century the ruling regimes in the former so-called people's democracy (GDR and others) adopted a quite loyal attitude to religion, while in the USSR the confessions were subject to various repressions. The efficiency of this attitude to Islam is reflected both in
consciousness of political leaders, scientific community, in mass media and at the level of daily life.
It is worth analyzing the impact of Islam on the needs in Islamic education. The process of renaissance of Islam in Russia to a large extent will be determined by the situation of national Islamic education. The present demands in Islamic education appraise its condition and the results of its development in future depending on types and models of educational institutions, which function in a definite region.
For the period of 2009, a group of sociologists of the North-Caucasus State Technical University studied Islamic education in four Federal Districts of the European part of Russia (the Central District -Moscow, the North-Western District - St-Petersburg, the Volga Basin District and the Southern District). The aggregate research is represented by five main quotas: religious and circular higher educational institutions, umma and the religious leaders, elder school students-graduates and their leaders, mass media, experts in religion and education. In total, the research covered the whole specter of consumers and providers of the services connected with education in the sphere of Islamic history and culture.
The main empirical methods of primary sociological information were as follows: questioning and individual thorough interviews. A special method was elaborated for each quota of the aggregate object of studies. Thus, the six separate questionnaires were composed for collection of information: for students of higher education institutions, professors, school graduates, their parents, students of mosque schools as well as medrece's students. The questionnaires were distributed in all ten chosen regions to the fixed categories. In some regions, due to the circumstances connected with distribution of quotas among specific regions, not all targeted groups were subject to questioning. The experts in religious education, mass media, religion and governance were in
charge the quality of interviews. From 5 to 10 thorough interviews were taken in each region chosen for study. The number of organizers of interviews was as follows: 450 professors of higher education institutions and medreces, 758 parents, 821 school graduates, 467 students of higher education institutions, 481 students of medreces, 185 students of medrece schools, as a whole - 3142 respondents. And 58 printed and electronic texts were subject to content analysis.
Since the majority of ethic Muslims live in the Volga Basin District and the Southern District (in time of research, at present - the North Caucasus), the information presented below refers to the data received in these Districts. The study was arranged in the Nizhni Novgorod region, in Tatarstan and Bashkortostan, as well as in Dagestan, Checnya, Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachaevo-Cherkessia, Stavropol krai.
The graduates of the high and higher religious professional education get the status of religious Islamic servants and are sent to perform services in mosques by the Spiritual Departments. For the next five years, the leaders of Islamic education estimate the needs in qualified clergymen in the European part of Russia to be two thousand graduates with medrece diplomas. The most urgent needs of them are regarded to be in the North-Caucasus and the Volga Basin Districts.
The Islamic spiritual leaders and experts in higher Islamic education determine as an optimal the quantitative correlation of needs in qualified clergymen possessing general professional religious education and in experts in Islamic theology, history and culture, who have received higher professional education justified by state certificate 10:1. Thus, for the next five years it is necessary to educate not less than 200 specialists in Islamic theology, history and culture. Taking into account the fact that after graduation from the education Islamic institution not more than 50% of the graduates express their wish to
work according to the received profession, the number of trained specialists should be raised minimum up to 400 persons.
The authors of the research project proceeded from some main ideas and hypothetical prognoses. They thought that side by side with definition of needs in professional servicemen of Islamic cult, specialists in history and culture of Islam, Islamic theology, arrangement of education activities with due account of confessional direction it was necessary to find out needs in education and in the number of future students of higher and high professional education as well as of their parents.
The school graduates - ethnic Muslims pay potential interest to professions connected with religion, correspondingly: in Nizhni Novgorod region - each third graduate, in Tatarstan - each fifth, in Bashkortostan - each fourth, in Dagestan - each third, in Chechnya -each third, in Ingushetia - three fourths. The rather great difference in interest paid to Islamic education among Ingushi graduates may be explained by the fact that for the last many years in Ingushetia the basics of Islamic religion were taught at general school.
In all studied districts the students of schools at mosques paid greater interest to religious professions than the graduates of general schools. The parents of the graduates in different regions are differently aware of the needs of their children in religious education. The wishes of the parents relating to religious profession of their children differ as well.
In Tatarstan the number of the school graduates' parents aspiring for religious profession of their children is half as much again the number of their children, who wish to get religious education.
In Bashkortostan the number of parents, who want that their children should get religious education exceeds greatly the number of graduates sharing these intentions. The prevailing number of the
parents, who prefer Islamic education for their children, means that the general school education does not give to the school children the adequate knowledge to mace the choice for the benefit of professions connected with Islam.
In Dagestan the situation is vice versa: the number of school graduates wishing to get religious education one and a half time exceeds the number of their parents with the same wish. It seems that the parents have concern about religious education for their children. It is connected with the above mentioned purposes.
The choice of the school graduates to get education, connected with religion, in Islamic or state higher education institutions is characterized as follows: In Tatartstan - 4:1; in Bashkortostan - 5:1; in Dagestan - 4:3. The arguments for religious education expressed by the graduates in the Volga Basin are less cogent than the arguments mentioned by the school graduates in the republics of the North Caucasus.
The trend was found out: the need in high professional religious education as a self-purpose ("for my-self"), as a way of thorough knowledge of Islam, of raising personal Islamic culture. This trend coincides with the position of spiritual Islamic leaders and medrece heads, who say that Islamic education is needed not only for professional carrier but also for a more profound knowledge of Islam by the youth.
In the course of implementation of the research project, side by side with other factors, which have influence on formation of needs in Islamic education, the experts studied materials of printed and electronic mass media playing great role in formation of professional orientations of the school graduates and in shaping of their parents' preferred option. According to the research materials, the potential consumers of education services are better informed about existing
Islamic institutions than about state higher education institutions with teaching subjects connected with religion. The main channels of getting information about religious education are the non-formal communication channels in local community (family, acquaintances, friends, other relatives). In Dagestan and Chechnya the TV programs play the role of this channel.
The problems of Islamic education are not dominant materials in Muslim electronic and printed mass media. The information is reduced mainly to mentioning of the problems of professional level of clergymen and experts in Islamic theology. At the same time, the mass media does not mention the probable ways of solving these problems. It shows the need in closer reciprocal action of scientists, priests and journalists for the sake of elaboration of ways and means and forms of solving problems of Islamic religious education. The lack of federal TV programs and channels of Islamic orientation was marked in all studied Federal Districts.
Thus, the analysis of the information, collected thanks to the project's implementation, justified the supposition that due to absence of unity in Islamic religious community in the European part of Russia and due to absence of united conception of national Islamic education and enlightenment, due to inadequate information about Islam in curriculum of general education, the positions of employers and potential consumers of education services in the sphere of Islam do not coincide with each other. This fact reflects in aspirations of the medreces' students and the students of religious higher education institutions for their employment after graduation from these education institutions. In Nizhni Novgorod region and Tatarstan about half of graduates from mederece are sure to some extent that they may become clergymen in their preferred region, while half of students in higher religious education institutions are sure to some extent that they will
find a job according to the received profession. In Bashkortostan over half of students expressed such conviction, and in Dagestan the prevailing majority of students were sure of it.
The lack of a choice for Imam in a rural district to ensure the adequate material maintenance for his family is the main factor of medrece graduates when they take the decision in favor of the priest's carrier. In contemporary Russia the rating of religious education coincides with its rating in foreign countries, where military, technical, scientific and circular humanitarian subjects occupy the dominant position.
One of the general conclusions of the study is as follows: the renaissance of Islam has not been reflects in the needs in Islamic education of ethnic Muslims, who live in the European part of the country and graduate from the general school. There is a good reason to assert that at present in Russia there is no alternative to Islamic education and enlightenment, which is organized and arranged within the context of Russian historic and ethnic-cultural traditions as a important factor promoting further renaissance of Islam/
"Mir cherez yazyk, obrazovaniye, kulturu: Rossiya-Kavkaz-Mirovoye soobshchestvo", Pytigorsk, 2010, p. 172-178.
R. Mukhametshin,
orientalist
FORMATION OF CONFESSIONAL POLICY IN RUSSIA: THE EXPERIENCE OF TATARSTAN
At present, the main participants of formation in Russia of confessional policy stand out in relief quite visibly. But as potential subject of this policy they have not yet become its actors. The
