Paul
Goble
Staunton, November 13 – Russia’s
Muslims cannot develop without a reformation of Islamic discourse which unfortunately
today remains “in the clutches of an unnatural and unscientific dichotomy of ‘traditional’
and ‘untraditional’ Islam, according to Damir Mukhetdinov, the first deputy
head of the Muslim Spiritual Directorate (MSD) of Russia.
Speaking at a conference at Kazan
Federal University on “Islam in a Multi-Cultural World” timed to coincide with the
opening of the Bolgar Islamic Academy, the prominent Muslim modernist calls for
“a democratization of discussions and the rejection of the term ‘traditional
Islam’” (business-gazeta.ru/article/363580).
“Such crude generalizations not only
do not reflect all the complexity and diversity of the Islamic intellectual and
theological landscape, but they lead us away from an understanding of the essence
of problems and the paths of their resolution,” Mukhetdinov says. Indeed, the
term “’traditional Islam’” backed by the authorities serves as “an instrument
of pressure” on Muslims.
According to the mufti, the notion
of some “’Islamic gold standard’ is nothing more than an illusion. The Islamic
world has developed via many paradigms” and now “under conditions of a
pluralism of opinions,” the way is open for “various interpretations of the
postulates” of the faith, including those some think cannot be questioned.
What is needed, Mukhetdinov says, is
the development of “a new methodology and a new conceptual framework for making
sense of the Islamic tradition and the construction of Islamic spheres of
knowledge. Even the classical division of spheres of knowledge … may be
considered out of date.”
The modern and post-modern era puts
before Muslims challenges very different than those which the Jadids addressed
a century ago and indeed may lead to “the second formative period of Islamic
thought” (the first being in the seventh to tenth centuries of the common era),
he continues.
This won’t be easy because it will
be necessary to work out a new interrelationship between the classical Islamic
tradition and the recent developments of academic Islamic studies. But it is
critical that happens, the mufti says, because the latter all too often until
recently was “consciously or unconsciously” dominated by the response to the experience
of being colonized.
“In the last half century,”
Mukhetdinov argues, “the situation has changed in a significant way, as a
result of the entrance of a new generation of researchers who combine both
Western and Islamic traditions.” To date, Islam has been the recipient of this
cooperation; with a change in attitude, it can become a contributor.
Mukhetdinov’s words may seem
precious or marginal, but in fact, they constitute a declaration equivalent to
the ones the Jadids made more than a century ago when they too called for the modernization
of Islam and Islamic education. Indeed,
his call may be even more important.
That is because his program represents
not only a challenge to the Muslim umma within Russia but to the Russian state
which wants to keep Islam within the mosque under the guise that that is what “traditional”
– read in this case, Soviet-defined – Islam is all about. And even more it
represents an effort by a Russian mufti to reclaim for Russia a leading role in
the Muslim world.
Resistance from many Muslims and
from the Russian state is certain to be intense, but Mukhetdinov’s argument
represent a kind of Protestantism within Islam that is likely to be far more
attractive than its opponents suspect, especially at a time when the only
alternative to “traditional” Islam on offer is Islamist radicalism.
And while the mufti does not make
this point, it is entirely possible that he sees what he is calling for as
representing the golden mean that is highly valued among Muslims between the
traditionalists who are losing support and the radicals who are a threat not
only to the Russian umma but to the Russian state.
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