Russian Military Must Organize Muslim Chaplain Corps to Deal with Muslim Dead and Wounded in Ukraine, Religious Leaders Say

Paul Goble

            Staunton, May 18 – At the present time, there are often no imams who can organize funerals for Muslims who have lost their lives in the Russian army in Ukraine or who can visit Muslims who have been wounded there, religious leaders there say. Volunteer imams aren’t enough – the war in Ukraine means that Moscow needs to organize a Muslim chaplaincy now.

            In Ukraine where Russian troops are fighting, there are no Muslim organizations which can provide such services; and as a result, Ildar Alyautdinov, the imam of Moscow’s Cathedral Mosque says, Muslim troops who die or are wounded often don’t get the help they need (dailystorm.ru/obschestvo/imam-moskvy-zayavil-o-neobhodimosti-sozdaniya-shtata-musulmanskih-svyashchennikov-v-armii).

            Muslim organizations in Russia have been sending volunteers to try to make up for this shortfall, he says; but these volunteers don’t have official status and often can’t gain access to the people who need their help most, those who have died and must be buried and those in  hospital who must be comforted.

            What is needed is a large and effective Muslim component to the chaplaincy corps of the Russian military, Alyautdinov says, as well as a commitment to ensuring that believers of all faiths get the kind of support that a country owes those who are prepared to fight and die for it in wars abroad.

            Rabbi Aaron Gurevich agrees. Speaking at a Federation Council hearing this week, he said that there are too few religious representatives in the military and that few have any support from the army or the government (vmeste-rf.tv/broadcast/kruglyy-stol-opyt-vzaimodeystviya-gosudarstvennykh-i-religioznykh-institutov-v-realizatsii-programm-/).

            At the start of this year, he continued, there were only 206 religious working officially in the Russian military, including not only Orthodox Christians but Muslims and those of other faiths as well. As a result, Gurevich told the Russian parliamentarians, those like Daghestani Muslims who are dying are not being taken care of by the government that sent them into battle.