Muslims Benefit from Not Having a Single Power Vertical like Russian Orthodoxy, Experts Say

Paul Goble

            Staunton, August 15 – Since the demise of the Soviet Union, more than 80 regional Muslim spiritual directorates (MSDs) and three “super” or centralized ones, the Union of Muftis of Russia (SMR), the Central MSD and the Coordinating Center for Muslims of the North Caucasus, with which most of the regional MSDs are affiliated to one degree or another.

            Many religious specialists linked to the Russian government or the Russian Orthodox Church and some within Islam, especially Talgat Tajuddin, who heads the Central MSD and styles himself “the supreme mufti of Holy Rus,” have long argued that Russia’s Muslims suffer because they do not have a single leader who can speak on behalf of them.

            But most Muslim experts disagree: they argue that the diversity of structures reflects the democratic nature of Islam – both mullahs and muftis are elected rather than appointed at least in most cases – and help ensure a wide diversity of opinion that is essential to the discovery of truth even as it allows on occasion for serious errors.

            Two who share that view, Ruslan Gereyev who heads the Center for Islamic Research on the North Caucasus and Ruslan Aysin who edits the Poistine portal shared their thoughts with Daniyal Isayev on the occasion of the upcoming celebration of the 20^th anniversary of the Coordinating Center (onkavkaz.com/news/2389-otsutstvie-edinogo-obscherossiiskogo-muftijata-po-tipu-russkoi-pravoslavnoi-cerkvi-luchshe-dlja.html).

            Both point out that the “super” muftiates are more places for discussion than institutions of control. That is especially true in the North Caucasus where muftiates at the republic level are quite strong and have close ties with political leaders while the “super” muftiate provides them with a place to meet “as equals” and to thrash out differences of opinion on key issues. 

            Gereyev for his part says that “in fact, from the position of law and spiritual power, the Consultative Center for Muslims of the North Caucasus is more a consultative body. The muftiates in the localities and in the republics of the North Caucasus are stronger and have a strict religious hierarchy. To influence their activity from the outside is not easy.”

            The North Caucasus muftiates, he continues, “are powerful social-political organizations and spiritual movements, the appeals of which are very important for hundreds of thousands and millions of people living in the North Caucasus Federal District. But what is most important is that for the state, they are a guarantor of stability, order, and spiritual training.

            “Nevertheless, the Consultative Center as a common generator of ideas is needed. And even in the absence of full power it is needed to set the general vector for joint work. Analogous centers exist in practically all regions and in all confessional communities. Besides, for the muftis, this is a space where they can speak as equals, make declarations, and so on.”

            Aysin says that the mix of institutions is the result of the turbulent times of the 1990s but that what has emerged is not something that should be done away with.  He argues that it is better that there is not a single MSD for the country as a whole because if it were to exist, “the authorities would put pressure on it.”

            Because there are many MSDs and three “super” MSDs, Muslim leaders have the chance to maneuver, something they would lose if Moscow organized a single body.  And they would lose something else as well: the competition of opinions that makes possible the emergence of truth.