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However, the working out of the strategy of long-term policy in this direction should take into account the realities of the cultural-civilizatory factor of reintegration.
"Obozrevatel - Observer," Moscow, 2012, No 12, pp. 42-50.
Abdulbari Muslimov,
Deputy Head of the Spiritual Board of Muslims of Nizhny Novgorod Region SOCIALIZATION OF THE UMMA. DIRECT AND INDIRECT MECHANISMS
At present, as we see, Muslims here are not in the best situation, both socially and culturally. We have to traverse a long path, despite the fact that we have already done much.
I will not touch the political problems of the development of the umma, inasmuch as they are foreign, in my view, as related to its other problems, but I will concentrate on some of the problems facing Russian Muslims.
First, the Muslim community of Russia is practically in an atomized state. Except organizational pluralism, the believers more often than not find themselves divided in many respects - from ethnic to age-related.
The migration flows from the Central Asian countries and the Caucasus have made our communities in big cities poly-ethnic, and this is why our imams should take this into account in their Friday sermons, switching from the Tatar or Bashkir language to Russian.
Each imam should realize that he is the first person to begin socialization of a Muslim-immigrant, he initiates the integration process in Russian society and the Russian umma, and the formation process of
a unified Russian umma is started by him. Official statistical data show that the educational level of immigrants is low, and therefore one of the tasks facing the imam is, apart from spiritual guidance, to raise the educational level of his parishioners. Numerous examples in Central Russia and in the Volga area show that the active position of the imam in his relations with migrant-parishioners helps not only avoid contradictions within a community, but also contributes to the formation of friendly interethnic and interconfessional relations within concrete municipalities.
We should also bear in mind the assistance rendered to spiritual boards of Muslims by government bodies and institutions of civil society in the matter of integration of migrants. In turn, the Muslim clergy should realize that this assistance could be more effective if we correctly distribute the resources and means received.
Another important problem of the development of the umma is that of socialization of young Muslims.
We see at present that our young people are virtually defenseless in the face of the enormous flow of information from TV and the Internet. Simple decisions prompted them by the so-called well-wishers bring them to the idea of abandoning old traditions, to searching for new meanings and choosing more fashionable orientations. Unfortunately, the level of their knowledge and comprehension of the Islamic sources is low. They do not know the Holy Koran and do not understand and accept the values and wisdom contained in it. In essence, the conflict of the younger generation with the older generation is based on the tragedy of the interrupted theological tradition, it is the conflict based on the absence of a proper knowledge. Young people are more radical today, they prefer to orient themselves to foreign authors who speak with them in a more primitive language. Our Muslim young people do not have, as a rule, a proper Islamic
theological and secular education. From the sociological point of view, they are marginal sections who have received points of orientation in a ready-made form.
The third problem of the umma, which I'd like to single out, is that of the qualification level of imams.
We often see that the level of knowledge of the Holy Koran and Sunna of the Prophet Mohammed and competence in certain theological questions do not allow an imam to give proper answers to questions of believers, which causes their negative reaction. This situation is typical of many mosques, especially in rural districts and small towns. We all understand full well that the 70 years of planned purposeful work to eradicate Islam from the life of Muslims were not lost and to restore what has been destroyed during all those decades within twenty years is far from simple. At present we see that a new system of Russian Islamic theological education begins to emerge, which is oriented to the idea of mutual complementariness between the religious and secular blocs. A student of a madrasah or Islamic institute should not only know the Holy Koran and Sunna to perfection, but he should also become well-versed in history, sociology, legal sciences and culture, in other words, he should be a versatile specialist. In this connection mention should be made of the assistance rendered by the state to Muslim educational institutions. However, much has to be done by Muslims themselves.
Now, I'd like to turn your attention to the proposals as a subject of discussion and development within the framework of the practical activity of Muslim spiritual boards. These proposals deal with the direct and indirect methods of the socialization of the umma.
I consider the entire bloc of questions connected with the successful functioning of the institution of the spiritual board of Muslims to be the direct mechanisms of the socialization of the umma.
The modern spiritual board of Muslims should be not only a religious organization, but a multifunctional center of Muslim culture, which could include the following duties in its activity:
- maintenance of organizational foundations of the activity of the spiritual board;
- creation of conditions for receiving religious education and raising the qualification of imams within the framework of spiritual board;
- maintenance of the work of mosques and their provision with high-quality imams;
- work with young parishioners;
- work with Muslim-immigrants (including teaching them the Russian language and foundations of culture of Russian Muslims and Russian society).
The integrated work of imams, Muslim educational institutions and associations of young Muslims within the framework of the spiritual board of Muslims will allow them to become the institutions of the umma around which Russian Muslims will unite both ideologically and organizationally. The spiritual board can work with all Muslims irrespective of the legal school they belong to. This will make it possible to lower considerably the threat of emerging pseudo-Islamic extremist organizations and establish mechanisms of socialization of young Muslims, and ultimately to form stable foundations for the tradition of Russian Muslims based on the Holy Koran and Sunna of Prophet Mohammed and works by world-famous theologians, as well as on works by Russian Islamic theorists. The present generation of Muslims is able to pass on to their children a stable tradition supported by serious theological basis.
Indirect mechanisms of socialization include everything which could help Muslims preserve their culture and enhance its wealth in the modern world:
Among them are the use of the mass media and the Internet, which are now often directed against the Muslim community; introduction of secular disciplines aimed at the formation of integral world outlook (history, philosophy, sociology, political science) in the curricula of Islamic educational institutions; formation of a section of scholars of Islam, journalists, authors writing about Islam, and publishers who could represent the interests of the umma in a worthy manner within the framework of Russian society and the world community. It should be noted that serious steps are being made in this direction on the part of the state and spiritual boards of Muslims in cooperation with the academic community.
The spiritual boards of Muslims should closely cooperate with law-enforcement agencies and also be on guard over public low and order.
Thus, in the process of the socialization of the umma we see imam and the spiritual board of Muslims as the central elements. Their work could radically change the negative tendencies which we spoke of. It is natural that their activity should be more socially oriented.
The spiritual board of Muslims today is a multifunctional institution of the socialization of the umma which should perform several important functions: religious, educational, information, and even conceptual. With a strategic view into the future the Muslim umma and spiritual boards will be able to implement serious tasks given them by our Lord. This is why it is up to us to preserve and enlarge our community and strengthen our tradition and our Faith.
"Idealy i tsennosti Islama v obrazovatelnom prostranstve XXI veka," Ufa, 2012, pp. 38-42.
