DUSHANBE, June 29, Asia-Plus — Non-participation of authorities in solving religious issues may bring to disorder and chaos in society, the first deputy head of the Spiritual Board of Muslims of Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod Region, Damir Muhetdinov, said in an interview with Asia-Plus.
Mr. Muhetdinov was n Dushanbe to participate at the regional conference entitled “Islam and Democracy” that was held here on June 25.
According to him, the present Islam situation in Russia causes serious concern. “During the Soviet time, four spiritual Muslim boards had functioned – in Baku, Ufa, Makhachkala and Tashkent and after collapse of the Soviet Union there was one spiritual Muslim board, while at present, there are some 100 such boards and some 80 muftis and unhealthy competition is to be observed between them,” said Muhetdinov, “It means that chaos reigns in our Islamic society [in Russia] and all this destabilizes society.
“Local [Russian] Muslims are mainly orientated to so-called “Turkish Islam,” while newly arrived Muslims are orientated to the “Saudi Islam” and this difference of opinion sometimes comes to fisticuffs,” Russian Muslim cleric noted.
Therefore, Tajik authorities should control religion to a certain extent in order to avoid chaos that occurred in Russia, Muhetdinov said, noting that mosques in Russia are full of labor migrants from Central Asia, primarily Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.
There is nothing bad in that but Tajiks and Kyrgyzs sometimes fall into net of some religious extremist organizations because of poor knowledge of Islam, he said. “Unlike Central Asia’s states, such radical religious organizations are quite widely represented in Russia; they are less persecuted and they have an opportunity to manipulate this part of the population,” Muhetdinov added.
