Оригинал. The Legacy of Islam

Оригинал

The value of the VFD is not limited solely to its economic contributions, however. The VFD is of crucial importance in the context of Russia–NATO and U. S. –Russian cooperation, in addition to its importance to issues of religious stability and security. According to a U. S. Department of State fact sheet, the United States recognizes Russia’s contribution to building a better future for the Afghan people. Our two countries have developed excellent cooperation that supports Afghan efforts to make Afghanistan a peaceful, stable, and economically self-sustaining country, free of terrorism and illegal narcotics. We recognize that significant further international support will be needed to achieve this goal. 9

As a result, more than 2, 200 flights, 379, 000 military personnel, and 45, 000 containers of cargo have been transported through Russia in support of operations in Afghanistan. In June 2012 the Russian authorities gave permission for a transit route through the VFD for combined military supplies supporting the NATO operation. To help achieve this goal, the Alliance opened a special transit center in Ulyanovsk—despite the many U. S. -Russia disagreements on a wide spectrum of international policy issues, including Syria, Georgia, and the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty.

The Legacy of Islam

The VFD includes six national republics—one third of Russia’s national republics—and is home to about 40 percent of Russia’s Muslim population. Within the VFD there are approximately 2, 400 officially registered Islamic organizations, as well as the many nonofficial organizations mentioned earlier. Ethnically, Tatars constitute the largest Muslim ethnic group in Russia, with a total population of about 5. 3 million; they are concentrated in Tatarstan and Bashkortostan as well as in some areas of the Volga and the Southern Urals (the Ulyanovsk, Samara, and Orenburg oblasts [re

gions]). In total, there are about 4 million Tatars in the Volga region. Of the 1. 6 million Bashkirs in Russia—the second largest Muslim group in the country—1. 3 million reside in the VFD. Muslims constitute a majority in seven Russian constituencies, two of which are located in the VFD: Bashkortostan with 54. 5 percent, and Tatarstan with 54 percent. Some other territories of the VFD are home to a significant percentage of Muslims, even if they don’t constitute a majority of the popu-lation. The Orenburg Oblast is approximately 16. 7 percent Muslim, 0 and the population of the Ulyanovsk Oblast is 13 percent Muslim.

When examining the religious and political challenges that the VFD faces, however, one can-not assume that challenges of one Russian region are applicable to another. Both the VFD and NCFD have diverse ethnic compositions and Islamic traditions as well as a relationship with other religions, primarily Orthodox Christianity. The respective histories of the two regions are very different, however. In both the Imperial and Soviet periods, the Volga region experienced higher levels of industrialization and urbanization than the North Caucasus. A large proportion of non-Muslim groups, mainly ethnic Russians, also settled in these industrialized, urban areas, leading the Volga region to become more secularized as well. Those factors decreased the role of Islam, especially in political sphere.

9. U. S. State Department, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, “U. S. -Russia cooperation on Afghanistan: Fact Sheet, ” June 18, 2012. http: //www. state. gov/p/eur/rls/fs/193096. htm.

10. It is also necessary to consider the huge influx of migrants entering Orenburg, whose numbers are difficult to assess with absolute accuracy.

Another key difference between the two regions is that, unlike the North Caucasus, the Volga region has been an integral part of Russia for a much longer period of time, dating back to mid-sixteenth century Muscovy and the conquest of the Kazan Khanate by Ivan the Terrible. 11

This is not to say that Muslims in conquered territories were treated well. Repressive and discriminatory policies imposed upon the former Khanate subjects, including forced conversion to Christianity, prevailed from the sixteenth century through the first half of the eighteen сentury. After that, however, Russian policy became more flexible and greatly expanded the rights of Muslims. Numerous wars against the Ottoman Empire, which claimed the role of the protector of Muslims and exploited the idea of religious solidarity, caused Russia to recognize the need to strengthen its own Muslim community’s political loyalty. The Russian imperial government was also interested in decreasing the riots and rebellions that had been so numerous in the seventeenth century and the first half of the eighteenth in the lands of the former Kazan Khanate. The Volga region, which at that time had the largest Muslim population in the Russian Empire, became a unique platform from which this goal could be realized. In June 1773 Empress Catherine issued the decree “On the tolerance of all faiths, ” which prohibited Orthodox clergy from intervening in the religious life of other confessions and formally recognized Islam as a “tolerable religion” in the empire. In November 1783, Tatar morzalar (Muslim noblemen) were integrated into the Russian Imperial Army and in February 1784 they were granted rights and privileges equal to those of the Russian nobility. They participated in all of Russia’s military campaigns, including wars against the Ottomans.

Importantly, the first official Muslim organization in Russia arose in the Volga region. In September 1788 Russian Imperial authorities officially recognized the Orenburg Muslim Spiritual Assembly, with its center in Ufa (capital of today’s Bashkortostan). 12 The assembly constituted a serious attempt, in the midst of the Russian–Ottoman War (1787–1791), to foster a constructive relationship between Russia’s Muslim community and the Russian state, supporting and promoting the predominant role of the Orthodox Church while placing at the forefront such principles as political loyalty and religious autonomy. Volga Muslims, especially ethnic Tatars, played a significant role in the assembly’s creation and development, and the competence of the assembly’s clergy in matters of religion, education, and family law covered the entire Muslim population of the Volga region, promoting its comprehensive integration in the social structure of Russia.

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