Window on Eurasia

‘Foundations of Orthodoxy’ Taught in Many Russian Schools, Muslim Leader Complains

Paul Goble

Vienna, July 31, 2006 – In violation of the Constitution and despite debates in Moscow over how religious issues should be handled in public schools, education officials in numerous Russian oblasts already have introduced a “Foundations of Orthodoxy” course, and in some cases, Russian Orthodox priests are serving as instructors.

In an interview posted online last week, Abdulbari-khazrat Muslimov,
the deputy head of the Nizhniy Novgorod Muslim Spiritual Directorate (MSD),
complained that this course had already been introduced in “Tamov,
Kaliningrad, Tula, Yekaterinburg, Kaluga, Kursk and a large number of
other oblasts.”

And Muslimov, who oversees educational work for his MSD, added, he
knows of at least one case where an archpriest is slated to be the instructor
on this subject in a general educational school in the village of Gagino
near Nizhniy Novogorod itself
[http://www.islmann.ru/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1200].

Can this be an “honest” form of behaviour by either the Orthodox
Church or the Russian state “when at the federal level this question
is still be discussed?” Muslimov asked rhetorically.

If it is really necessary “to introduce instruction in the
foundations of religion in schools, then,” he continued, “it must be
exclusively as a voluntary subject” about all religions rather than a single
faith and one where enrollment will be allowed “only on the basis of the
written agreement of children and their parents.”

And even a voluntary approach will be fraught with difficulties,
Muslimov said. Imagine what how some pupils would feel if there were a
voluntary course on a specific religion in a class where there were 20
Orthodox students, five Muslims, four Jews, and two Buddhists.

“I fear,” the deputy MSD chief said, “that this could prove too
complicated for a child who during his or her school years typically
strives to be just like everyone else. Is it conceivable that we
parents (Muslims, Christians or agnostics) could allow that our children should
be subjected to such psychological pressure?”

In the course of the interview, Muslimov talked about his own career as
a Muslim leader as well as a variety of other issues. A graduate of
medressahs in Bashkortostan and Saudi Arabia, the 29-year-old MSD
deputy head has served as an imam at Nizhniy Novgorod’s cathedral mosque
since 2004.

Muslimov stressed the importance for Muslim leaders to have a secular
education – and for secular leaders to know about religion, even
though he expressed his doubts that this should be accomplished by
introducing courses on religious issues in primary and secondary
schools.

He also expressed skepticism about the possibility of introducing a
chaplaincy corps in the Russian military. While something needs to be
done – “in our army there is no order,” Muslim said – trying to
set up a chaplaincy system is certain to be difficult if not impossible
given a shortage of cadres.

Muslimov’s views on these issues put him at odds with the Russian
Orthodox Church, but on one issue, he took a position the Moscow
Patriarchate shares. He said that he believes that sometime soon the
Muslim community of the Russian Federation should have a single Muslim
leader.

“There is one God, there is one president, and it would not be a bad
idea if in the republics and in the country as a whole there was one
leader of the Muslims,” Muslimov said.

In summing up his remarks, the young Bashkir Muslim leader made the
following comment about current negative attitudes in the Russian
Federation toward those mullahs and imams who have received training in
Saudi Arabia or other Middle Eastern countries

Most of the “negative” images such people have in the Russian
Federation, Muslimov continued, is the result “above all” of the
attitudes of “Muslim religious leaders of a number of national
republics” who see attacking Saudi Arabia and mullahs trained there
as a means of expanding their own power.

Muslimov said that in his view, “this position is at the very least
strange,” not only because many of those doing the attacking have
sent their children and grandchildren to study in Saudi Arabia but also
because Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries have provided
so much help to Russia’s Muslims over the last 15 years.

Attacking now Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries who have
provided such help in the past and suggesting they were only interested
in spreading “extremism” is not only inaccurate but an act of
ingratitude that the basic teachings of Islam warn against, the
youthful Muslim leader said.

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