By Vestnik Kavkaza
According to the Chairman of the Council of Muftis of Russia, Ravil Gainutdin, the reluctance of the Russian authorities to build new mosques prevents Muslim migrants integrating into society and promotes the growth of religious extremism.
Sheikh Ravil Gainutdin, chairman of the Council of Muftis of Russia, thinks that “most of the load in the adaptation, integration and socialization in Russia is taken by Muslim organizations, religious communities of Muslims. A Muslim who arrives in a Russian city, cut off from his way of life, from his familiar environment, facing a lot of problems, often feels shock in the new position for him, in the new conditions in a foreign country. And he begins to look for a familiar environment, goes to a mosque, just as a migrant-Orthodox goes to a church, Jews – to a synagogue, and so on. But as you know, mosques in major Russian cities, being the main places for circulation and welcome of migrants, are sorely lacking, even for locals, not to mention foreign workers. Most of our mosques are built for cities much smaller than now and with a smaller share of Muslims among the residents.”
Therefore, Gainutdin believes, “Muslim migrants organize their own alternative religious infrastructure, insulated from local Muslims, and make the process of their integration impossible in principle. Thus, preventing the construction of new mosques in the right way leads to the isolation of migrants and minimization of their contact with the local population.”
In addition, Gainutdin does not know who preaches in these alternative mosques and prayer rooms and, most importantly, what is promoted there. “Socially-disordered people are fertile ground for the spread of various attitudes, ideologies and extremism. We now form a closed community, experiencing hard external pressure – this is the ideal environment for the emergence and spread of any extremist views,” he said.
Mufti urged not to find examples of successful integration of migrants somewhere abroad, but to turn to great examples in the history of our own country: “For example, in previous centuries in Western Siberia, in Tobolsk and Tomsk provinces, there were numerous settlements of immigrants from Bukhara and Khiva, which formed the interesting group of the Siberian Bukhara. Retaining their original identity, they were able to perfectly integrate into Siberia, to merge with the local Tatar population so that Emperor Nicholas II, passing through Siberia, specifically entered their villages and saw them adapted and living with the locals… And this is held by the autochthonous Muslim communities. Since the latter were, in turn, integrated into Russian society.”
The Muslim organizations of the Russian Council of Muftis have accumulated a lot of experience in this field. “For a long time we have been successfully working with Muslim migrants. And in this work we also cooperate with the Spiritual Administrations of Muslims of the countries of origin - Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. We are working on the creation of a CIS Council of Muftis, one of the activities of which will, in particular, be the active engagement of migrants who do not have to feel abandoned in leaving their homeland. The consolidation of Muslims in the Eurasian space is impossible without forming a common religious elite, which historically has always existed for our Muslim people. Virtually all religious organizations within our structures work day-to-day for the integration of migrants. It is conducted through preaching in mosques, lectures and courses in the Russian language, and religious practices of Islam. Imams conduct interviews with Muslims coming to them, and specialists provide advice and legal assistance,” Gainutdin states.
He is sure that the perception of migrants only as working units sooner or later will hit both the migrants and the host community. “Unfortunately, Russians today cannot cope without migrants, and in the future Russia will also accept migrants. Without focused, systematic educational work with both migrants and the host community, we cannot solve the problem of the adaptation and integration of migrants.”
