For the 12th time, Kazan hosted the International Forum ‘Islam in a Multicultural World’, which was attended by guests from different countries and cities.
The Forum is an expert platform for discussion of issues relating to Islamic studies, Orientalism, relations between a state and a religion and inter-confessional interaction. It addressed current issues and challenges facing the Russian Ummah.
The event brought together religious and public figures, academics, representatives of government departments and university students.
This year, the Forum took place over two days, on 29 and 30 September. The opening ceremony was held at the meeting hall of the Board of Trustees of Kazan Federal University. The organizers of the event presented the delegates with an extensive program: plenary sessions, monitoring, sections on a wide variety of topics and competitions.
At the opening ceremony of the Forum, Dmitry Tayursky, Vice-Rector at Kazan Federal University, noted the role of the republic in consolidating friendship and cooperation with the Muslim world: ‘Our University received federal status 12 years ago and immediately headed to make Kazan and its classical university a world centre for oriental studies, Islamic studies, Turkology and Arab studies once again. And here, undoubtedly, we can agree with the statement of Head of the Republic Rustam Minnikhanov that today Tatarstan is a kind of a gateway to the Islamic world entering Russia’.
Vitaly Naumkin, Scientific director of the Institute of Oriental Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences, thanked the organizers for the invitation in his welcoming speech and added: ‘We try to come here every year. This wonderful event is one of the most interesting in Russia, dedicated to the issues of Islam and Islamic studies’.
The Forum included the welcoming speech by Chairman of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the Russian Federation and Chairman of the Council of Muftis of Russia Sheikh Ravil Gainutdin. Sheikh recalled the common goals of scientific and spiritual circles in solving general humanitarian tasks: ‘The study of Islam as one of the main factors influencing political, economic, social, spiritual and cultural process in many countries around the world, including Russia, requires not only an objective academic approach, an independent view from the outside, but also deep inner understanding, meaningful reflection, expressed by competent representatives of the religious tradition itself. This is precisely the approach laid down in the concept of the Forum’.
Rector of the Russian Islamic Institute Rafik Mukhametshin: ‘Kazan Federal University is an important Islamic venue. Since 2007, we have been actively working with Kazan federal University and have gained significant experience’.
It should be noted that the event is taking place in the jubilee year – the 1100th anniversary of the adoption of Islam by Volga Bulgaria. Ainur Timerkhanov, Acting Rector of the Bulgarian Islamic Academy, mentioned it in his speech: ‘There is no doubt that the adoption of Islam by our ancestors became a milestone event that for centuries determined the course and nature of Islam and the whole Muslim Ummah in Russia. It ensured a significant contribution of Russian Muslims to the general Islamic and general cultural world heritage’.
Delegates from Russia, Türkiye, Algeria and Yemen presented their thoughts on topical and pressing issues in the world of Islam. Each speaker presented a different perspective on the challenges of Islam in an intercultural world.
GSV "Russia - Islamic world"
Photo: Дмитрий Проценко/Pixabay