Putin Tries to Teach Russian Muslims their Religion
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
01 March 2013, Russian President Putin within the framework of spreading extremism in Russia has instructed his government to develop unified standards for teaching Islam in higher education, reports the Izvestia Journal. Today in Russia, four secular and two religious universities prepare specialists in Islam. Russian Islamic University in Ufa and Moscow Islamic University are considered higher Islamic educational institutions in Russia. However there are no unified training programs for such professionals in Russia. According to the Head of the Center for Islamic Ethnopolicy Dengi Khalidov, now every university itself forms the list of Islamic disciplines from its own experience. This is not the first time that the Russian government is paying close attention to the field of Islamic education in Russia. A few days ago the Russian parliament considered the amendments to the Labour Code and the law, "On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations". Through which the authorities plan to prevent teaching in mosques and madrassas of Muslims who received Islamic education outside of Russia. According to the authors of the bill "in the ‘90s of the twentieth century many young people were educated in Islamic universities of the Arab countries, where a number of branches preach ideology aggression against other religions that does not fit so-called Russian Islam. Moreover, in this law will appear some amendments that prohibit foreigners, stateless persons, and persons whose activities recognized as extremist by the court to become a founder or a member of the religious organization.
In addition, the Ministry of Justice passed a bill on public discussion that would force everyone to coordinate all public religious activities with the authorities if they are held outside of religious buildings and places. That is all the religious activities, including ceremonies, collective preaching, holidays can only be held in mosques or in private houses as well as cemeteries. If someone wants to hold a religious ceremony outside these places, he will have to negotiate the possibility of its implementation with the authorities in the manner prescribed for holding rallies, marches and demonstrations. All Islamic holidays, including Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha will be affected by this law. At the initiative of the Shabab of Hizb ut Tahrir Russian Muslims have begun to celebrate these festivals in parks, squares of their cities, thus openly calling Russians to Islam. Perhaps this became one of the main reasons for this document to appear.
Thus it is clear that the Russian authorities pursue a consistent and integrated policy to oust the Islamic thoughts out of Russian religious education. The Muslims who studied Islam outside of Russia are suspended from teaching. They take measures to exclude the Muslims that are not pleasing to the authorities to take part in the religious and educational activities. They exclude independent Islamic activists from universities and mosques trying to push them off the streets, they take restrictive laws for their mass street Islamic ceremonies. Russian authorities hope that by eliminating Islamic education in Islamic schools and forming tame Islamic leaders, they will be able to introduce their new fictional religion so called Russian traditional Islam into the minds of Muslims. But Allah (swt) completed the religion of Islam for the Muslims 14 centuries ago saying:
((...ٱلۡيَوۡمَ أَكۡمَلۡتُ لَكُمۡ دِينَكُمۡ وَأَتۡمَمۡتُ عَلَيۡكُمۡ نِعۡمَتِى وَرَضِيتُ لَكُمُ ٱلۡإِسۡلَـٰمَ دِينً۬ا ... ))
"This day I have perfected your religion for you, completed My Favour upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as your religion" [al-Maidah: 3]
Usman Salihov