Terra sebv s acta mvsei sabesiensi s

Russia-Middle East: The Influence of the Arab Factor 

 

139

The mufti of Tatarstan, Gabdulla Galiullin, was perhaps one of the 

first to start talking directly about the harm foreign education was causing 

to Tatars, though some statements, which did not name any addressees, had 

been given previously by the head of CSAM of CIS and Siberia, Talgat 

Tadzhutdin.

8

 In 1996, Galiulin was still trying to play on the federal field as 

the Chairman of the Highest Coordination Center (HCC) of spiritual 

administrations of Muslims of Russia, but some of his pointed statements, 

which lacked coordination with the opinions of the leadership of Tatarstan, 

along with inadequate actions, raised the question of changing the spiritual 

leader of Muslims. 

Pretending to be loyal, in an interview for Interfax Agency, he 

declared that there was a danger of schism in Tatarstan, which would be 

“favourable for Moscow.” Graduates from foreign Islamic higher education 

institutions returning home were the source of this. According to his 

calculations, at that time approximately 100 people from Tatarstan were 

being trained in countries such as Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, 

Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, the Arab Emirates, Malaysia and Indonesia. He 

opined that “they will inevitably bring something new that could come into 

collision with the settled customs. I don’t doubt that hostility, intrigues and, 

as a result, schism will follow. Harm will be done to the whole religious 

environment.”

9

 He saw a way out through creating local religious 

educational institutions, but there was no money for organizing these, and 

“the state [was] remaining aloof.” 

It was difficult to take this statement seriously, as it was Gabdulla 

Galiullin who in the early nineties had organized the training of young 

Tatars in Arab countries, and the author of this article took part in an 

interview with him on this subject. Furthermore, according to another ex-

mufti of Tatarstan, Ildus Fayzov, the boom in departures of Tatar youth for 

Islamic countries took place in 1995-6.

10

 

The events of August-September 1999 in Dagestan introduced a new 

term - “Wahhabism” - into the lexicon of experts and politicians. The 

discussion began as to whether there was a basis for Wahhabism in 

Tatarstan. Against this background, the federal mass media were given carte 

blanche by the opponents of the acting mufti of SAM of RT, Gusman 

Iskhakov, and in particular by his former competitor Fareed Salman. In his 

famous letter to The Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Salman wrote that the Muslim clergy 

trained abroad: 

                                                 

8

 Lider musul’man Rossii protiv vmeshatel’stva zarubezhnyh islamskih organizacij v duhovnuju sferu svoej 

konfessii (Postfactum.Ru., 20 July 1994, accessed 5 May 2014). 

9

 Islam v Rossii 1996. 

10

 Kak protivostojat’ 2011. 

www.cclbsebes.ro/muzeul-municipal-ioan-raica.html   /   www.cimec.ro

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A. M. Akhunov 

 

140

“don’t hide their ideas hostile to national Russian Islam. After all, for them 

we are traditionalists, heretics and ignoramuses. The personnel situation is 

that there is a dramatic shortage of staff (mullahs). The majority of mosques 

have appeared recently and the number of these which are empty is great. 

Supporters of traditional Islam are in every possible way pushed aside and 

displaced. Graduates of Wahhabite institutions are put in their places.”

11

 

He also wrote that all religious power was in hands of people who 

had received a Saudi education or those depending on the Saudi financially. 

The ideal time for attacking the official SAM of RT was chosen 

successfully. One could hardly say that the criticism was completely 

groundless, but the issues at hand did not come within miles of the events 

occurring at that moment in Chechnya and Dagestan. The authorities of 

Tatarstan, frightened by this letter, were compelled to issue a statement 

three days later in the same Rossiyskaya Gazeta. The Chairman of the State 

Council of Tatarstan, Farid Mukhametshin, reported that all competent 

authorities were currently conducting a review of all publications in the 

press and other information connected with penetration of alien ideology 

into the territory of the Republic. As Mukhametshin stated, 

“If this information is confirmed, I don’t exclude the possibility of a ban on 

similar activity in the territory of Tatarstan. Besides this, we will address the 

federal authorities with a similar proposal.”

12

 

Thus, the question of adopting the law similar to the one in Dagestan, 

Regarding a Ban on Wahhabite and Other Extremist Activities, was seriously 

considered. 

After the situation calmed down a little, Tatarstan officials started 

conducting counter-propaganda activities. A well-known expert in Islamic 

studies, Professor Gulnara Baltanova, published an article O zhupele 

“vakhkhabizma” ili politicheskoy bor’be vokrug islama in the local press, declaring 

declared that: “it is obvious to any intellectual that real roots of Wahhabism 

in RT don’t exist as Islam and have no impact on the political situation in 

the Republic.” 

Speaking about the system of religious education, she declared 

unsuccessful the approach of the President of Ingushetia, Ruslan Aushev, 

who ordered licenses to be withdrawn from educational institutions 

financed by foreign states or organizations: 

“So in itself, rejecting foreign help will not solve the problem but will only 

aggravate it ... The same could be said about the second channel of 

influence of ‘Wahhabism,’ namely the training of our youth abroad. This 

practice is inevitable, and it isn’t worth rejecting it, it is another matter where 

                                                 

11

 Wahhabism 1999. 

12

 Predsedatel’ Gossoveta 1999. 

www.cclbsebes.ro/muzeul-municipal-ioan-raica.html   /   www.cimec.ro

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