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R. Bekkin,
Scholar of Oriental Studies (the IOS of RAS) THE ISLAMIC TAXES AS AN INSTRUMENT OF SOLVING SOCIAL-ECONOMIC PROBLEMS OF THE MUSLIM POPULATION IN RUSSIA
The Spiritual Departments of Muslims in Russia not by accident come forward for development of vakf, otherwise vakuf (the non-alienated property, in accordance with Muslim law, given by the state or a private person for religious or charitable purposes) and actually ignores zakyat (the obligatory annual partial payment of the property for the benefit of needy Muslims), irrespective of the fact that the latter might become a part of the federal religious law, like in Germany.
The lack of interest to zakyat on the part of a rather great number of Muslim priests is explainable. The question is that zakyat, unlike vakf, is not the similar universal means of defrayal of expenses of religious organizations. Most Muslim jurists consider that use of the means from zakyat for construction of mosques in the region, where a certain number of them exist already, is inadmissible. The scientists think that the expenses for construction of mosques should be defrayed by the state, if, obviously, it is a Muslim state. In case of a non-Muslim state, it is also undesirable to use a greater part of zakyat for construction of mosques.
At the same time, the expenses of the means collected by zakyat for education, publishing and other needs connected with religious enlightenment of Muslims do not raise any questions. It is important to remember that payment of zakyat is voluntary in most countries. In this connection there emerges the problem of observing by Muslims of one of the five Islamic pillars - payment of zakyat.
For the 1970s, in many Muslim countries the religious figures had to exert many efforts to persuade believers to pay this tax. At
present, the number of people in the Muslim world, who are ready to fulfill their religious obligation, is very great. Each Muslim wishing to pay zakyat may do it by his plastic card through Internet or by mobile-phone. In the Muslim world the Islamic system of financial accounts is subject to elaboration to a large extent owing to the rise of the number of people and legal entities ready to pay zakyat.
In Russia for the years of the Soviet power, the culture of zakyat, like the culture of vakf, disappeared. For the first years after the revolution, in the RSFSR zakyat was paid. In particular, in the regions of compact settlement of Muslims (the Volga Basin, in the North Caucasus and in the Middle Asia) the collective farms bought implements by the means accumulated owing to payment of zakyat. However, for further period of time, zakyat was not collected. For the Soviet time, in the Caucasus some well-off Muslims, city residents visited the rural districts and distributed to believers the financial means collected as a clearing tax. It was replaced by sadaka, the irregular payment by Muslims for the days of religious feasts.
The question of zakyat was inevitably raised by Muslims in Russia, since, unlike vakf, it is one of five pillars of Islam. In February 2005, Muslims in Tatarstan got a chance to pay zakyar through banks "Ak-Bars" and "Taftonbank". These banks in this case only play the role of a financial mediator, and they would hardly be used as efficiently as in some Muslim countries. For instance, the Egyptian public Naser Bank does not distribute the means collected from zakyat among needy people but gives them financial support to buy under beneficial conditions, for instance, agricultural implements. The bank buys at market prices the produce of peasants and helps them in good time to change their status of receivers of zakyat for normal tax payers. Under these conditions, the clearing tax actually comes forward as an efficient means of struggle against poverty.
In some regions of Russia the Muslim clergy tries to put to the service of Muslims other religious taxes sometimes without understanding their genuine shariat meaning. For instance, for the 1990s in some districts of Tatarstan (Baltinski, Arski and others) imams asked the chairmen of collective farms to allocate a part of potatoes for nourishment of students in Muslim religious education institutions. However, as a matter of fact, in this case it was the collection of sadaki - the one-time charitable contribution - but not of ushra or gyshyra, as it is called in Tatarstan, - the tax of one tenth of the crop.
The development of zakyat culture in Russia, inter alia, is hindered by the population's lack of needed knowledge of this clearing tax. The majority of believers are not able to distinguish zakyat from other Islamic charitable institutions. The religious figures are unable to cope with it. For instance, some years ago imam of the mosque in the city of Maikop (Adygeya) ordered to install two baskets - one basket for zakyat and the other - for sadaki. The parishioners did not see the difference between them, and imam had to abandon the idea.
However, mixing zakyat and sadaki is only a small misfortune. In Moscow and in the Moscow region in some local religious organizations of Muslims (MPOM) the regular contributions of believers for administrative expenses of local communities are called zakyat. It is evident that the leaders of these communities deliberately try to make sacred the local community members' duties and to give them "special" status. Such tricks seem to discredit not only the Muslim clergy but the idea itself of the clearing tax. The believers lose their confidence in zakyat as an instrument of efficient re-distribution of the wealth in society for the benefit of the needy community members, seeing that the means collected as zakyat are used not for the benefit of the categories mentioned in Koran.
Interpreting the observance on the clearing tax in their interests, morally unscrupulous or simply illiterate Muslim clergy men in this sense do not differ much from representatives of armed formations covering by Islamic terminology their illegal activities and calling as zakyat the contribution demanded from businessmen. The main aim of such "zakyat" is the financing of jihad in the meaning of the representatives of the armed underground. This pseudozakyat is being collected from businessmen of the origin in the North Caucasus not only in their historic Motherland, but also throughout the country, notes Russian ethnographer A.A. Yarlykapov.
In this situation, it is difficult to say, whose cynicism is greater: of the almost illiterate fighters, who demand from well-off citizens the money for jihad, or of the representatives of spiritual "elite", who interpret the provision on zakyat in the way they want.
For instance, the book, which was written by M.E. Kalimullina, "Zakyat. Practical Guidance", (contains, regretfully, a chapter written by the author), has the paragraph "Zakyat as an obligatory contribution of members of the local religious organization". In particular, it contains the following statement: "...Each Muslim as a member of MPOM pays to it the needed dues, approved by the meeting of the organization, and pays zakyat means or does not pay zakyat means, if he is considered to a needy person, and receives zakyat means from the fund of the organization. This form of collection is quite acceptable and seems to be efficient for the CIS countries and for Russia in particular".
In other words, the author not only mentions the practice of mixing the membership duties with zakyat means but also characterizes it to be "quite acceptable". Maybe, there is here an inaccurate wording? But the following sentence in the small paragraph is quite explicit and indubitable: "Thus, . a certain share of zakyat means is paid to the
above organ, which distributes these means for the projects connected with the needs of the communities, members of this organ". The author prefers to keep silent about the size of the share, which the "higher organ" in charge of the project may allow itself to take, as well as about the relation of such scheme to the order of zakyat distribution, defined in the Holy Book and in Sunna. At the same time, it would be incorrect to say that the spiritual organizations of Muslims everywhere demonstrate inefficiency in collection and distribution of zakyat.
Of some attention deserves the experience of the Republic of Karelia, where the collection and distribution of zakyat is in charge of the Spiritual Department of Muslims of the Republic of Karelia (DUM RK), which has communities in Petrozavodsk, Kostomuksha and Kondopoga. The success achieved by the Karelian community in collection and distribution of zakyat to a large extend is explained by the fact that it is not numerous. The members of the community know well those, who are able to pay zakyat, and those, who are in need of means. Thus, DUM RK performs the technical obligation to collect and to distribute the cleaning tax. Of some significance is the fact that mufti of the Republic of Karelia Visam Ali Bardvil enjoys respect and trust of the believers. He publicly says that he is ready to render an account of each kopek received as a zakyat contribution. It is not excluded that any payer of zakyat actually may get full information in DUM RK about the way of his contribution was spent, but this information is not accessible for "people of the street"; and therefore it is impossible to speak about complete transparence of the system of collection and distribution of the cleaning tax in the republic. The author several times sent to DUM RK his requests for information about the collection and the distribution of Zakyat means, but they were left unattended.
With due account of the above said, it is possible to say: it is not a surprise that the believers have greater faith in specialized Muslim
charitable organizations than in the Spiritual Departments. As an example one may cite the Internet-resource Sadaka.ru. The creators of the site aimed not at re-distribution of received means for charity, but at rendering assistance to those, who are in need, and at search for potential sponsors. The section of the site "They need your assistance" contains declarations of the people applied for help. Any person, who wishes it, may fill in the special form in site www.sadaka.ru and place his address for the sponsors, who may communicate with him.
Unlike Sadaka.ru project, the charitable foundation "Solidarity" is occupied directly with re-distribution of the sponsors' financial means for charitable purposes. The section "Where your money was spent" of the foundation's site contains the list of sponsors (if they wished to make public their names), the received sum, address of assistance and the date of incomings of money. The same site of the foundation has the section "Zakyat", which contains information on the sums collected by volunteers of the foundation as zakyat or zakyat al-fitr.
It seems that the future of the Muslim charity in Russia will be presented by the projects of Sadaka.ru type or by the charitable foundations. Up to present, they use mainly sadaka, but in the perspective the development of collection and distribution of zakyat will be possible, like, for instance, it is made by foundation "Solidarity". At present, it is premature to speak about creation of some centralized system of collection and distribution of zakyat in Russia as a whole under the aegis of the Council of muftis or other coordinating structures, under conditions of absence of the united Spiritual Department of Muslims, to the author's mind. The first step on this way should become not only the modernization of the technical basis relating to zakyat, particularly formation of data bases of receivers of
the clearing tax, but also the process of raising the level of trust for the Muslim clergy.
It is not necessary to amend the normative-legal acts in order to collect and to distribute zakyat in Russia. However, in the future it will be necessary to foresee in the legislation the amendment to ensure the adoption of tax benefits for the regular payers of zakyat, otherwise zakyat will acquire the form of irregular charitable payments, i.e. will be replaced by sadaka, as it was done beforehand.
Till present, the illiteracy of many payers of zakyat and the lack of transparent system of collection and distribution of zakyat is a significant hindrance to development of this institution in Russia. It is very difficult to eliminate the myths connected with zakyat. The example of Islamic tax zakyat al-fitr shows the large extension of false perceptions in society on Islamic taxes. Zakyat al-fitr is used to be distributed before the termination of fast on the territory of some Muslim peoples (for instance, Adygs and Kabardins). At the same time, the payment of zakyat al-fitr is regulated not only by the norms of Muslim law but also by local custom. For instance, a woman, who was living in aul Khatukai (Adygeya), calculating the sum of zakyat al-fitr, included in the list of items for payment not only her children but also cows, since they were living creatures and therefore should be given some charitable contribution. In another aul of Adygeya, Koshekhabl, zakyat al-fitr is distributed mainly among relatives and close friends of the payer.
Regretfully, quite often the local superstitions and prejudices and not the perceived need to observe one of five pillars of Islam constitute the basis of payment of irregular alms by many Muslims in Russia. For instance, in the North Caucasus sadaka is paid for the deceased relatives, if they saw them in a dream. One has only to guess about the
people seen in a dream by some Muslim figures, if they permitted themselves to use zakyat in a free and easy manner.
"Islamskaya ekonomicheskaya model i sovremennost", Moscow, 2010, pp. 289-305.
Khasan Dzutsev,
D.Sc. (Sociol.) (the North Ossetian CSS of ISPS of RAS)
WAHHABISM IN THE REPUBLICS OF THE NORTH CAUCASUS: REALITIES AND CONSEQUENCES
The dissemination of religious trend called wahhabism in the republics of the North Caucasus Federal District (NCFD) to a large extent is related to the crisis of Islam. As a rule, for this period civilization undermines the conservative foundations of any religion, including Islam, and of such ideological-political trend as wahhabism; their responsive self-protection acquires acute forms. It is possible to make prognoses that wahhabism will disseminate rapidly in the Muslim world just as a sign of the crisis in the way of life and custom but not in ideology. The crisis is clearly seen in the autochthon ethnoses of the republics in the NCFD, which are consolidated on the basis of the way of life. The problem consists in interconnection of religion with traditions, in the process, when religion becomes the sense of the given people, while the change of the way of life results in braking of the principles of religion itself and of its ideology.
In the countries characterized by dissemination of wahhabism the aim of wahhabism is the same - to connect the peoples in certain entity. The initial substance is not the territorial border but the ethnos and sub-ethnos with due account of the fact that ethnic membership does not
