DUSHANBE, October 6, Asia-Plus — By holding the international conference dedicated to Imam Azam Tajikistan sets an example of unity to many peoples and countries, Dr. Vitaly Naumkin, Director of the Center for Arab Studies at the Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences said in an interview with Asia-Plus.
“This symposium assists people, in particular religious and scientific elites, in realizing that it is necessary to live together and in peace,” Dr. Naumkin noted.
According to him, there ought not to have illusions that after the symposium all problems existing between Muslims will be solved. “However, the conference may promote the beginning of the dialogue and persons that have gathered at one table today should seek solution to these problems,” said Russian senior expert. “At present there is an acute competition in Central Asia because we currently live in a highly competitive world. I think it is normal but it is necessary to bear all offences, and religion will unite us, of course.”
Mr. Naumkin considers that peoples of Central Asia have not become more pious after the collapse of the Soviet Union. “Everything has remained as before,” he said, “We know that people were keeping faith and continuing to pray at home and passing religious books on from one generation to another despite the fact that atheistic regimes had reigned in all Soviet republics.”
Today, people have an opportunity to know their religion deeper, Naumkin said. “At present, people just observe all religious rites and ceremonies and expresses their views openly,” noted Russian expert. “Today, superficial religiousness in Central Asia is high like in Russia, where many people attend churches and pray. However, to what an extent a person is really man of faith and observes all moral principles set by religion is another and big question.”
We will recall that many known Muslim clerics and religious leaders and specialists in Islam, from Central Asia’s states, Afghanistan, Egypt, India, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Russia, and Turkey as well as from a number of the European countries, Japan and the United States arrived in Tajikistan to attend the symposium that is concluding today. Thus, among them, ex-presidents of Afghanistan Sibghatullah Mojaddedi and Burhanuddin Rabbani, as well as Dr. Ahmed Omar Hashim, Chancellor of Al-Azhar University, Dr. Vitaly Naumkin, Director of the Center for Arab Studies at the Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, Sheikh Mohammad Ishaq Madani, Iran President’s Adviser on Sunni Affairs. Marat Murtazin, Chancellor of the Islamic University in Moscow, etc.
