Paul
Goble
Staunton, April 12 – The Moscow
Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church has always used priests from Russia
to spread its influence and that of Moscow more generally in the former Soviet
republics, but now the Moscow Islamic University has announced a new twist on that
tactic: it will train Russian-speaking mullahs for the Muslims in Kazakhstan.
On the one hand, this program, which
was agreed to yesterday by Erzhan Malgazhdyuli, Kazakhstan’s supreme mufti, and
Damir Khayretdinov, the rector of MIU, reflects the growth of Islam in areas of
Kazakhstan where many people including ethnic Kazakhs still speak Russian more
often than Kazakh (interfax-religion.ru/islam/?act=news&div=54984).
But on the other, it is clearly
intended to expand Russian influence over the Muslim community there in much the
same way the Moscow Patriarchate does with Orthodox Christians outside of
Russia and to reduce the influence of mullahs trained outside of the former
Soviet space. It is likely to be extended to other Muslim majority countries in
Central Asia.
Initially, the agreement specifies, mullahs
and imams from Kazakhstan will study in Moscow for three to six months, a
length of time that suggests this program will be directed in the first
instance at retraining those who are already leading congregations rather than
training a new generation of such people.
If the MIU were to get involved in
the latter task, it would have to retain students there for a minimum of
several years and perhaps far more. But
from the point of view of the Russian government, even this limited program
could have consequences that the Kremlin is unlikely to be comfortable with.
Unlike the Moscow Patriarchate which
only rarely sends its priests to study abroad, the MIU-Kazakhstan agreement
calls for the establishment of close relations with Cairo’s Al Azhar
University, perhaps the most important Muslim educational institution in the
world and with the Haseki University in Turkey.
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