Window on Eurasia

Russia’s Muslim Leadership Greet End to Deferments for Religious

Paul Goble

Vienna, July 27, 2006 – In a move reflecting the longstanding position of
the Union of Muftis of Russia (SMR) but also one calculated to please
the Kremlin, a senior SMR official has welcomed the end of draft
deferments for those studying in religious schools and those already
serving as religious leaders.

These changes in the 1997 military service law, Damir-khazrat
Gizatullin, the SMR’s deputy head, are not only consistent with the
injunctions of Islam to love one’s motherland and be prepared to
defend it but also will ensure that Russia’s “imams will be closer
to their parishioners”
[http://www.muslim.ru/1/cont/4/5/751.htm].

Gizatullin’s position, a restatement of the SMR’s 2001 decision on
the social responsibilities of Muslims in the Russian Federation, puts
the SMR at odds not only with some other Muslim leaders who fear a
disruption in the faith’s educational and pastoral work but also with
many hierarchs in the Russian Orthodox Church.

Depending on how officials treat Muslim students and mullahs from now
on, the consequences for Islam in the Russian Federation could be
severe. Since the 1990s, the average age of mullahs and imams has
fallen dramatically, and a large but unknown share of them might be now be
drafted.

More immediately, Gizatullin pointed out, there are approximately 1,000
young men studying in Russia’s Muslim higher educational institutions
who will now be subject to the draft. Were all of them to be called to
service at one time, he said, the situation for some of these schools
could become dire.

But the SMR leader suggested there were three reasons why he and his
SMR colleagues are confident that the future impact of these changes in the
law governing military service will be more positive than negative.

First, Gizatullin pointed out, the Russian government is cutting the
length of service for draftees from two years now to only one year
beginning in 2008 and increasing the share of the armed services made
up by contract employees. Both of these trends will reduce the exposure of
present and future mullahs to any mass levy.

Second, he continued, the SMR and other Muslim leaders have an
excellent working relationship with the Russian Defense Ministry and especially
with the Main Organizational-Mobilizational Administration of the
General Staff. Gizatullin suggested that he will be meeting with them
to discuss how to smooth this transition.

And third, the willingness of Muslim leaders to serve in the army will
not only allow them to share in an experience common to many of their
parishioners but provide a suitable rebuff to those who say that some
people want to be imams only to avoid military service or that Muslims
are somehow less loyal to the state than other groups.

By getting out in front of this issue – and it is worth noting that
the Russian news agency Interfax carried a report on Gizatullin’s
remarks shortly after they were posted on the SMR site – the SMR
leader is putting himself and his organization in the best possible
light, at least as far as the Russian leadership is concerned.

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