Paul
Goble
Staunton, March 17 – Often despite
their own desires, Russia’s Muslim nations are becoming international actors,
the result of the impact of events in the Middle East and globalizing trends
from the West and of their status as peoples who now find themselves divided by
state borders, according to a leader of the Lezgin community of the Russian
Federation.
Speaking last week to the Russian
Council of Foreign and Defense Policy on the role of Muslims in Russian foreign
policy, a session that attracted senior Russian diplomats, scholars, and
activists, Ruslan Kurbanov, vice president of the Russian Federation of Lezgin
National Autonomies, described this development (flnka.ru/main/1652-mid-svop-i-flnka.html).
The meeting of
this influential non-governmental organization was in fact called, other
speakers said, because “since the beginning of the 21st century, the
Muslim peoples of the world in all their ethnic and national multiplicity … are
ever more becoming the subjects” of policy and not just its objects as was
typically the case earlier.
These speakers
also noted that Russia is “a country where Muslim peoples are a state-forming
community, and representatives of that community play an active role in
society,” but they noted, “the opinion of Muslims about Russian foreign policy
and their assessment of what is taking place in the world around Russia rarely become part of public
discussion.”
Last week’s meeting was intended as
a corrective to that and addressed how the Muslim peoples of Russia view Moscow’s
foreign policy, what particular concerns they have about it, and “to what
degree should the authorities take into consideration the position of Muslim
peoples” given that “the national interests of Russia are much broader and more
complicated than just its relations with Muslim states.”
Kurbanov told the group that “today
in the Muslim social milieu of Russia can be observed a rapid globalization of
consciousness and activity of peoples who formerly were cut off from the
processes in the international arena.”
This development is taking place throughout these communities but is
most clearly scene in the intellectual and practical spheres.
The Lezgin leader gave as an example
of this the rapid transformation of the communities of Daghestan, the Caucasus
and the Middle Volga, a transformation that he described as “revolutionary” and
the involvement of foreign states in this process through the education of
young people from these Russian regions.
Today, Kurbanov continued, “an ever
greater emancipation of the Muslim peoples of Russia is taking place” as they
obtain “ever greater access to education” and thus are in a position to realize
their “potential in business, politics and education.” But, he added, this
process is not without certain problems.
“The Muslim peoples of Russia,” the
Lezgin leader said, at the same time are suffering “a rapid deformation and
destruction of their traditional society” under the impact of alien influences
that are, in the first instance, destroying “the traditional nuclear structure
of Muslim society.”
The Muslim communities have enormous
energy, but it will require a thoughtful approach to ensure that this is
manifested in positive ways rather than negative ones. And nowhere is this requirement
greater than in international affairs where Russia’s Muslims often “in spite of
their own will” are becoming “subjects of international politics.”
“A clear example
of this” is provided by the Lezgins, who number more than a million but are
divided “in half by the state border between Russia and Azerbaijan.” But there
are other divided Muslim peoples as well, including the Rutuls, Avars,
Tsakhurs, and Circassians, who because they are divided cannot develop “to a
full degree their identity and culture.”
This problem, which stands at the
intersection of domestic and foreign policies, represents a serious challenge
for Moscow, one that if it is not addressed carefully and soon, the Lezgin leader
concluded, could reach “crisis” proportions in the near future and thus
threaten Russia’s national interests.
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