By Vestnik Kavkaza
Reconsideration of education programs is being discussed actively today. It should prevent further radicalization of young people, which resulted in the developments in the Middle East after the Arab Spring. Speaking at the tenth International Muslims Forum “Mission of Religion and Responsibility of its Followers to Modern Challenges”, Mikhail Piotrovsky, an Orientalist, historian, the dean of the Oriental Department of St. Petersburg State University, the director of the Hermitage, expressed the view that religious tolerance exists only in comfortable conditions: “When countries live in a good economic situation, a politically calm situation, religious tolerance is easI'll achieved. When a tension occurs in society (various kinds of tensions: psychological, economic, political), religious tolerance turns out to be under threat.”
According to Piotrovsky, in such a situation a responsible position of activists of culture, the religious and secular intelligentsia is important; as they should prevent using stereotypes and demonization of different cultures and religions, mutual accusations which, firstly, are groundless and, secondly, all the same.
According to the historian, the idea of radical jihad was born by the Crusades, and it has the ideology of the Crusades: “It is a reflection of the results of religious intolerance brought to the relatively tolerant medieval Muslim world.”
Meanwhile, Piotrovsky says that it is necessary to study “the Russian recipe” of secular and spiritual cooperation, cooperation between Islam and the state, Islam and Christianity in the Russian Empire: “There are many studies on the wise system which was built there. It wasn’t always perfect. We know Peter the Great's policy which failed. We know Catherine the Great's policy, who founded our museum. The recipes which helped to create Russian Islam and for it to live were established. Of course there is no Russian Islam, only Islam in general. But the beautiful term is nice. Velimir Khlebnikov wrote in Hadji-Tarkhan:
Oh, Muslims are similar to Russians;
And Islam can be Russian.
I like their narrow eyes
Resembling slightly open window shutters.
Khlebnikov lived in the Volga Region; he had many genius poems. He accepted the two cultures very well. And when he said something about Islam, it sounded as if he really felt what he said and he did it right.”
Piotrovsky said that, together with colleagues from academic institutes, secular and religious universities, they prepare programs on deep studying of the history and culture of Islam: “We are coordinating work, so that studying would be different, but based on united foundations. We hope that our programs would satisfy even a student of Al-Azhar University. We will base the programs on collections, manuscripts, original texts, original materials. Russian Oriental Studies have always been based on this. Responsibility of Muslims, non-Muslims, our united responsibility of people of culture is preventing the demonization of each other and understanding that the differences are great.”
