Paul
Goble
Staunton, January 1 – Because some Muslims
argue that celebrating the new year holiday according to the international calendar is sinful, several Muslim
communities in the North Caucasus and Middle Volga have decided not to mark the
day in any way resembling the celebrations of their Christian or secular neighbors.
But according to one source, “over
the last several years, the New Year has been transformed into a symbol even
for those Tatars who are believers … [and] even those who earlier did not put
up a tree now do so as a matter of principle: If the Wahhabis oppose the New
Year, then [we] will celebrate it” (www.rosbalt.ru/federal/2012/12/28/1077286.html).
The celebration of the New Years’
holiday seems to be most at risk in Daghestan. Last year nearly 70 percent of
the schools there in that most Islamic of the republics inside the Russian
Federation did not mark the holiday, even though republic leader said residents
should because the republic has a secular government (www.rus-obr.ru/ru-web/22054).
Daghestani head Magomedsalam
Magomedov has announced that this year the celebrations will proceed because
Daghestan as part of the Russian Federation is a secular republic but “for many
local residents,” according to a recent analysis, his words still “remain
unconvincing” (www.bigcaucasus.com/events/topday/29-12-2012/81987-dagestan_ng-0/).
Magomedrasud Omarov, the press
secretary of the republic’s Muslim Spiritual Directory, said that “according to
Islam, one must not celebrate” New Year’s and that he personally doesn’t, but
he added that for many years, “people in
Daghestan have celebrated many dates which do not correspond to Islam” (publicpost.ru/theme/id/2899/_ng_v_shkolah_dagestana/).
He suggested that “Daghestani
Muslims have many more important issues” to deal with than whether to celebrate
this particular holiday. And he argued
that the only reason some Muslims raise the issue about New Years is that it is
guaranteed to attract the greatest possible attention to their cause.
Ruslan Gereyev, the head of the
Makhachkala Center for Islamic Research, said that New Year’s “isn’t Islamic,”
but “the older generation has simply become accustomed to it.” Younger
believers in contrast “don’t accept it.”
But they don’t accept it because the Salafis are against it: They don’t
because neither do the Sunnis or Shiia or Sufis.
The Salafis are usually blamed,
the researcher said, because “they are more active.” He did not say but it is
certainly the case that they are a group that government officials in Moscow
and elsewhere are happy to target. That is clear if one considers what one
student of developments in Tatarstan says.
According to Rais Suleymanov, the
head of the Volga Center for Regional and Ethno-Religious Studies of the
Russian Institute for Strategic Research, told “Nezavisimaya gazeta” that “the
popularity of the anti-New Years’ calls” in Tatarstan reflects the efforts of
the Salafis to promote “the Caucasization of the umma” there (www.ng.ru/regions/2012-12-28/6_shariat.html).
There have been cases in that Middle
Volga republic, Suleymanov continues, when Muslims in charge of companies have
“demanded from their subordinates, including non-Muslims, that the latter not
decorate their desks ‘in a New Year’s style’ with small trees” and the like
lest they offend “religious feelings.”
But most Muslims in Tatarstan appear
to be less agitated by this than Suleymanov’s words suggest. Rafik Islamgaliyev, a Muslim theologian, told
the Moscow paper that “Muslims are accustomed to using” the calendar based on
the birth of Christ and that this doesn’t cause them any problems.
After all, he observed, “New Year’s in general
is something completely voluntary: No one forces anyone to have a tree or to
listen to the speech of the president” and there is no harm for any Muslims
“who do agree to meet the New Year” in a celebratory fashion just as their
Christian or secular neighbors do.
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