On September, 4, 2017 the Bulgarian Islamic Academy was inaugurated, which marked a new milestone in the development and strengthening of the Russian Islamic education system. During these three years, the first Candidates and Doctors of Islamic Sciences have graduated, which means that the Academy not only justifies its tasks, but is quite ready to compete with the leading world Islamic educational institutions. This has been discussed within the framework of today’s meeting of the Board of Trustees, which was attended by Chairman of the Strategic Vision Group “Russia – Islamic World”, President of the Republic of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov.
The meeting was chaired by First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Sergey Kirienko and was attended by President of the Republic of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov, as well as the heads of several regions and major business companies of the country. Mufti of Tatarstan Kamil Hazrat Samigullin, his deputies Ilfar Hazrat Khasanov, who is also Chairman of the Board of Founders of the Bulgarian Islamic Academy, and Rafik Hazrat Mukhametshin, who headed the Academy as the Rector during the first years, also participated in the meeting.
The establishment and development of the Islamic Academy in Bolgar is in itself a very important event for the whole country. This thought sounded as a leitmotif throughout the meeting. As it was noted, over the past three years, the Academy has come a long way: the library stock has increased, which now probably covers all scientific spheres, the conditions for students’ education have been improved. All this makes it possible to say that the Bulgarian Islamic Academy is at a great and serious start for a breakthrough.
According to Vitaliy Naumkin, an Islamic scholar and director of the Institute of Oriental Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Academy currently has the status not only of national, but also of global importance.
“It provides a high level of Islamic education, which allows us to compete with the leading in this direction educational institutions of the world. Here significant translations are performed, dissertations are defended, and traditional Tatar theology is studied – all this lets us introduce the achievements of Russian theology to the foreign world. I would like to highlight the fact that the main task of the Academy is to strengthen Islamic intellectual identity”.
In his turn, Mikhail Bogdanov, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Special Presidential envoy for the Middle East, sharing his impressions from visiting the Bulgarian Islamic Academy, noted the strategic importance of building the educational institution on the Bulgarian land, the historical, spiritual and cultural place.
“It is great that we are creating such a powerful center for teaching Islam and training our theologians. It is very pleasant that lessons are conducted in the Arabic language – the language of the Noble Quran. Our task, as the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, as diplomats, is to establish contacts, create conditions for information exchange, exchange of students in order to improve the quality of education. It also includes the issue of assistance in the work of the Bulgarian Islamic Academy. This is a useful and important cause for our country. Certainly, the conditions created within the walls of the Academy are hard to overestimate. This is the center for citizens of our country, for Muslims of our and foreign countries”.
Addressing the participants of the meeting of the Board of Trustees, First Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration Sergey Kirienko expressed special words of gratitude towards the leadership of Tatarstan for the work done to establish and develop the infrastructure of the Bulgarian Islamic Academy.
“There is a wonderful material base, convenient both for students and teachers. We have to work on further development of the infrastructure. Besides, the work related to theological education and training programs is also of great importance. The participation of Russian regions, where Islam is a traditional religion, is very important. We originally wanted to build this work in such a way that applicants from all over the country came here and then after graduation could return to their regions with the right knowledge, culture and traditions that characterize our peoples. To do this, we will need serious and hard joint work”.
Separately, it was mentioned about those measures aimed at improving the quality of education in the Academy, as well as developing competitiveness in the world market.
“The President of our country has made a number of decisions to support the development of the Bulgarian Islamic Academy. The Foundation for Support of the Islamic Culture, Science and Education has been working for several years. There has been made the decision to increase the financing of this Fund, including from the budget of the country. In the framework of our further work, we will see how this Fund will be able to contribute to the work of the Bulgarian Academy. First of all, we are talking about the support of both applicants and students, and, of course the support of the faculty and graduates is very important, especially in the first years. It is clear that the Bulgarian Academy will have a difficult competition with foreign educational institutions and this competition should be ensured by the quality of teaching, the quality of programs. The graduates will meet no less competition. In this regard, it is very important to create for them appropriate material and living conditions, which will allow them to consolidate and carry out their ministry”.
In his turn, Rustam Minnikhanov, Chairman of the Strategic Vision Group “Russia - Islamic World”, President of the Republic of Tatarstan, drew the attention to the fact that Muslim religious education began to revive at the end of the 80-s – beginning of the 90-s. It was the time when a great number of various Muslim educational institutions and educational centers appeared. At the same time, there emerged some problems connected with the loss of educational traditions, lack of qualified personnel, and the introduction of views alien to the Muslim peoples of Russia.
“Unfortunately, we began to encounter the fact that our students were influenced by various extremist movements and radical religious groups. Only awareness of the existing problems and taking consistent decisions made it possible to change the situation for the better. Among such crucial decisions, there was the creation of the Russian Islamic University, the implementation of a federal plan of measures for the in-depth study of Islam, the creation of the All-Russian Council for Islamic Education in Kazan, which performs an important function in coordinating the activities of the main Muslim educational institutions, the development and implementation in all madrasahs of the republic standards of secondary Muslim education and a single list of educational literature”.
According to Minnikhanov, the logical continuation of this systematic work became the establishment of the Bulgarian Islamic Academy, designed to become the leading Muslim scientific spiritual and educational center of the country and the highest link in the system of national Muslim religious education.
“The Academy is a pioneer on many issues, which leads to certain difficulties. But despite this, there is understanding that building a competitive system of domestic Muslim religious education is a priority direction for the unity of the Muslim Ummah based on traditional for Russian Muslims values. It is of great importance that the Academy be not only an educational center, but also serve as a leading intellectual platform of Russian Islam, become a center for developing conceptual solutions to major issues of development of the country's Muslim community, defend Russia’s position in the international arena and promote its image. There is much to do to fulfill the President’s instruction to recreate Russia’s own Islamic theological school, which will ensure the sovereignty of the Russian spiritual space”.
Daniyar Abdrakhmanov, the Rector of the Bulgarian Islamic academy, in his report gave more details on the activities of the Academy. He said that nowadays 96 magistrates and 26 doctorates studied in the Bulgarian Islamic Academy. The lessons are conducted by 15 teachers, 5 of whom are full-time and 10 part-time. Training is conducted in the specialty “Islamic law”. We would like to remind that last year the first in the history of the country six Doctors of Muslim Theology graduated from the Academy. It is assumed that annually no more than 10 doctors of science will graduate from the Academy. This year, in addition to new doctors, the first graduation of masters of Islamic law is also expected.
It is worth mentioning that the Board of Trustees is a permanent collegial management body of the Academy. It was established to contribute to the formation of a strategy and perspective development plan of the Academy, to attract additional financial resources that are necessary for the implementation of development programs. Today, in the framework of the meeting the Strategy for the Development of the Bulgarian Islamic Academy has been approved.
Ilmira Gafiyatullina