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Z. Khabibullina,
Political analyst, Ufa, Bashkortostan THE ROAD TO MECCA: REVIVAL AND DEVELOPMENT OF MUSLIM PILGRIMAGE IN POST-SOVIET RUSSIA
At the end of the 20th century, after many years of reprisals and persecution of religion, Islam began to be revived and the culture and practice of Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca is revived, too. In present-day Russia the state authorities have taken the course to creating favorable internal and external conditions for the organization of hajj. The potential of administrative, material-technical, non-governmental, public and religious associations in all regions of Russia is extensively used for this purpose.
In Soviet years the main reason for restrictions of pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina was the absence of diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Saudi Arabia, and due to this entry visas for Soviet citizens going on hajj had to be obtained through third countries. The number and composition of pilgrims were strictly regimented. Many people who had made hajj at the end of the 1920s were later arrested and tried. After the 1941-1945 war against Nazi Germany the attitude to hajj changed radically. Twenty-five persons from all four muftiates controlling the Muslim community of Soviet Russia: the Spiritual Board of Muslims of Central Asia and Kazakhstan, Spiritual Board of Muslims of the Trans-Caucasus, Spiritual Board of Muslims of the North Caucasus, and Spiritual Board of Muslims of the European part of the U.S.S.R. and Siberia have been given permission to make hajj. The state security bodies checked and rechecked their loyalty. Hajj was allowed mainly to responsible government officials, men of culture and the arts, Communist party functionaries in Central Asian and Caucasian republics, and "reliable" clerics.
The opportunity for Russian Muslims to go on hajj freely appeared at the end of the 1980s - beginning of the 1990s. The first big group of pilgrims from the U.S.S.R. (about 1,500 people) arrived in Mecca for the first time in 1990. It was headed by the supreme mufti Talgat Tajuddin. Now Muslims living in 55 regions of Russia have the opportunity to go on hajj.
The number of those wishing to make hajj in Russia is growing by thirty percent on average with every passing year. The greatest number of pilgrims goes from Daghestan (80 percent), Chechnya is in second place, Ingushetia - third, the rest go from Moscow and the Volga and Ural area. Great popularity of hajj in the North Caucasus can be explained by specific features of Islam in the area, rapid rates of its revival, shorter distance from Saudi Arabia, and the activity of well-to-do patrons, the most well-known of them being Ramzan Kadyrov of Chechnya and Suleiman Kerimov of Daghestan. The North Caucasus has now surpassed the prerevolutionary development level of Islam (the number and composition of parishes, the scope of religious education, and popularity of hajj).
In view of the growing number of pilgrims to Mecca and Medina the problem of organizing hajj on a regional and countrywide scale has become quite timely nowadays. The number of Russian pilgrims to Mecca has increased many times over in the past two decades, and surpasses the official quota set by Saudi Arabia for all countries of the world in 1987 - one pilgrim from each thousand of Muslims living in a given country. In setting the quota for Russia, the maximal number of Muslims in the country was established at 20 million. This figure is fixed in the Russian-Saudi Protocol for receiving Russian pilgrims signed in Mecca in April 2009.
A coordination body of all spiritual boards of Muslims was set up in 2002; it was called the Council on Hajj at the Government of the
Russian Federation. It has to form hajj delegations and hold negotiations with the Ministry for Hajj affairs of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on many questions connected with the arrival and stay of Russian Muslims in that country: transportation, board and lodging, food, financial problems, and also the problems of tourism, exchange of information, etc. At present this Council acts as a non-registered public association including representatives of the big spiritual boards of Russian Muslims. It holds regular meetings to discuss general problems bearing on hajj and support on the part of government bodies.
The most urgent problem for the Council on hajj is the distribution of the internal Russian quota for going on hajj. The Russian Muslims wishing to go on hajj have to register much earlier and wait for their turn for several years. It should be noted that quotas in Russia are issued not to regions, but to spiritual boards of Muslims. The boards get in touch with special tourist firms.
It should be said that the cost of hajj is quite high - from 80,000 to 300,000 rubles, depending on the region of Russia. Believers apply to the Spiritual Board of Muslims or a tourist firm, which has business connections with the appropriate Saudi bodies. The latter take care of all organizational matters: board and lodging, medical insurance, consultations for rites and rituals, etc.
On the whole, pilgrimage to Mecca is becoming a tradition with Russian Muslims, which can be explained by the development of the Muslim umma in the country and a rise in the people's living standards. Russian Muslims are now increasingly integrating in the world's Muslim community. Another feature is a turn of part of Muslim believers to orthodox trends, especially young people. The hajjis form an elite part of the umma and exert a certain influence on the process of politicization and radicalization of Islam. A hajji is treated by his co-
believers as a man closer to God and he enjoys greater respect among them.
Hajj is one of the main means of establishing closer contacts of this country's Muslim umma with Muslim communities of Asian and African countries. Hajj is regarded in present-day Russia as a pillar of Islam and a very important element of international religious ties.
"Rossiya i Arabsky mir: istoriya i sovremennost," Ufa, 2012, pp. 70-72.
G. Guzelbayeva,
Sociologist, Kazan
ISLAMIC IDENTITY OF YOUNG TATARS IN THE REPUBLIC OF TATARSTAN
The revival of religious sentiments and the greater role of religion at personal and social levels have been observed in the world for the past several decades. Sociologists and politicians talk of "religious renaissance," "deprivatization" of religion, and even of "desecularization."
According to the data of a sociological survey carried out by the sociology chair of Kazan Federal University in February - March 2012, most inhabitants of the Republic of Tatarstan (89.5 percent) regard themselves Muslims or Orthodox Christians. Slightly over half of them believe in Islam.
Beginning from the early 1990s old mosques have been restored and new ones built. The number of people visiting them has steadily been growing, more Muslim publications have come off the press, new Muslim education establishments have been opened, and more religious organizations and Islamic initiative groups have been set up. More
