Gaynutdin Says Russia's Justice Ministry has Declared Him 'Chief Mufti of Russia' But That Doesn't Mean What It Might Seem

 Paul Goble

    Staunton, Mar. 13 -- Ravil Gaynutdin, head of the Muslim Spiritual Directorate (MSD) of Russia says that the Russian justice ministry has sent him a document declaring him to be "the chief mufti of Russia," a status that he has long sought and that this declaration doesn't mean he is now the Muslim counterpart of the Orthodox patriarch. 

    Since Gorbachev's time and especially after 1991, the number of muftiates in the Russian Federation has exploded. There were four in Soviet times, but today there are more than 80 in various regions of the country. Above them are four "super" MSDs to which most but far from all of the others are subordinate.

    Gaynutdin heads one of these four, the MSD of Russia; but there are three others, including most significantly the Central MSD under Talgat Tajuddin, the last surviving Soviet-era mufti and someone who has long aspired to become the Muslim counterpart to the Orthodox patriarchate.

    Last month, in pursuit of that goal, Tajuddin met with Vladimir Putin where the two discussed the need for such an official and such unity within Russian Islam (business-gazeta.ru/article/664743). But Tajuddin has the odious reputation as "the drunken mufti" because of his public drinking and is less able to compete for any preferment because he is based in Ufa rather than in Moscow where Gaynutdin has his headquarters.

    In claiming that the justice ministry has called him "the chief mufti of Russia," Gaynutdin clearly intends to advance his claim to being that in fact, although it is unlikely that the ministry in fact intended that and it is certain that not all other muftis will accept them as such (https://www.business-gazeta.ru/article/665874).

     The ministry likely meant that Gaynutdin could describe himself in that way in the course of his numerous diplomatic activities abroad rather than that he is now in charge of all Muslm sin Russia. Many Muslims, including people like Tajuddin, would not accept that, and Gaynutdin himself has admitted as much.     

    The fact that Putin met with Tajuddin so recently strongly suggests that at least for the time being, however much the Kremlin talks about the desirability of unity within the Russian umma, it isn't going to press for that lest it provoke a divisive explosion. A d it may even mean that the Putin regime prefers to have a divided Russian umma rather than a united one.