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Ravil Gainutdin, the chairman of the Mufti Council of Russia
The international Muslim community, umma, undergoes serious challenges.
We see how our faith, our firmness on the path to Allah
are subjected to a test in all places of the world from Myanmar, Kashmir to Maghreb and European states.
The current year is marked by a spike of violence in the Middle East and in the post-Soviet area
- Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan.
Wounds of the previous tragedy in Kyrgyzstan haven't healed up.
Our home faced troubles too: in terrorist attacks our brothers were killed
- Valiullah khazrat Yakupov and Said Afandi Chirkeiski.
While murders in Dagestan became awful routine,
the terrorist attack in my native Tatarstan was shock for not only all Muslims,
but also representatives of other religions of our country, millions of Russian citizens.
We realize that nobody of us is insured, nobody has immunity from militants.
Our brothers from the countries of Central Asia are also aware of what it is like to face extremism.
Some prefer to hold aloof in this context, hoping that extremists do not exist or they are too far.
Meanwhile, there are efforts to use the situation in political interests:
to call names, to urge to punishment of everybody without court.
However, we shouldn't hide our heads in the sand and try to find extremists among our opponents.
Spiritual institutes and religious activists have no right to replace state power bodies,
take functions of prosecution, court, and the police.
On the contrary, we should explain to our Muslim brothers and sisters
that only strict following the laws of the state can guarantee their rights.
We defend freedom for conscience, civic equality, preservation of our cultures and languages,
but strictly within the laws of our countries.
We do not intend to be seduced by illusions of a caliphate or an emirate.
We will stand for our real rights of citizens in our real states.
These principles lie in the course announced by the authorities of our countries
on reviving the historically united Eurasian area.
Development of umma cannot be restricted by limits of one state.
Today establishing of the future Eurasian Union is taking place in political, economic, and legal spheres.
It happens due to our political leaders, heads of our states.
Today we, umma of the Community of Independent States, do our first steps in this directions,
while Muslims have to contribute to consolidation
of the religious, education, cultural, and media area of the future Union.
Why are our spiritual ties weaker than they used to be?
The holy place is never empty.
It is tried to be occupied by forces which are not interested in our consolidation.
These people want to destroy our faith, traditions, and culture of our ancestors.
It is symbolic that our current forum is taking place on days
when several decades ago breakdown in the Second World War happened.
Then our great muftis Abdurahman Rasuli and Ishan Babakhan declared jihad to Nazism
and urged Muslims to fight against Nazi occupants.
Our grandfathers and fathers didn't divide into ethnic or religious groups in that war.
Each of them had his own family and spiritual roots,
but the consolidating ground was the common motherland and the common holy war,
a desire to defend their country and free the world from the Nazi plague.
That is why they were real warriors.
They were killed on the battle field as real Shakhids.
The Prophet Muhammad said: "Love to your motherland comes from your faith."
Therefore, in memoriam to our civilization unity,
our common victories and common Shakhid heroes
Muslims of the CIS should be a firm support in reconstruction of historic justice.
The Islamic community of the CIS makes first steps in this direction.
I believe in the current conditions we should take certain measures.
Firstly, Islam is not national, but the world religion.
That is why we welcome brother nations in our mosques and educational institutes,
share our traditions with them, traditions of the Bukhara schools
on training imams where representatives of various nations and Islamic movements were taught.
Secondly, we will support integration in the Eurasian area as effective cooperation
is necessary not only on a forum of state bodies, but also among citizens.
Thirdly, respecting independence of our states,
we will maintain our annual Muslim forumas a common platform for sharing views.
In this context integration within the Eurasian are is not only a political project.
We have a long path ahead to establishing a stable and consolidated umman of the Eurasian area.
We have to understand that the main institute for us is the Spiritual Department of Muslims,
and it should be improved and developed.
Only imams who are able to explain Holy Koran in a right way
and speak about the current developments should service in mosques.
They should explain people how to behave from the traditional Islamic point of view,
and this requirement correlates to Allah's call:
"And that such a community were among you,
which urges for the good, for the best, and warns about the bad and the dispraised."
The bone of our life should be a sermon activity, despite the fact in what form it is presented
- in a mosque, in the mass media, in verbal communication or in Internet.
The Muslim community should have such resources which would enable it not to beg,
but fulfill the projects which are necessary for its development.
Establishing of a stable Muslim community is impossible without a developed religious educational system
which would be competitive to the best world centers of the Islamic education.
The fight for souls of young Muslims who lost the right way is not a problem of law-enforcement agencies.
It is a business of every honest Muslim and every imam.
By realization of these directions we will preserve and revive our tradition, our mosques, our umma.
The future of Muslims is in Eurasia
- in modern work, mutual prosperity, and mutual prevention of radical and extremist ideas among Muslims.
The scale of the processes which are happening in the planet demands understanding of our responsibility
and our place in the world.
Only if we are together, we can be strong and prosperous.