The issues of future Islamic theology were discussed by experts of Russian and international level, who gathered within the walls of the Bolgarian Islamic Academy. The II International Research-to-Practice Conference ‘Islamic Studies and Islamic Theology in a Modern Education System: Problems and Perspectives’ was attended by over 100 delegates – prominent Russian and foreign scholars and experts in secular and theological education, Islamic theologians, theologians, Islamic scholars, religious scholars, representatives of public authorities, heads and representatives of state and religious educational institutions and research centres, teachers, religious and public figures from 22 regions of the Russian Federation and 12 near and far abroad countries. Speakers drew special attention of their colleagues to the fact that with the increasing role of the religious factor, the importance of theological education as a mechanism for better understanding, predicting and solving complex problems of an interreligious, interethnic and intercultural nature was growing.
What are the prospects for Islamic education?
Thus, within the framework of the round table dedicated to topical issues of organization and methodological support of education in Islamic universities, Ravilya Zianshina, an expert from the Institute for Strategy of Education Development of the Russian Academy of Education, outlined the main issues regarding the state of Islamic education in the Russian Federation. ‘In many ways, today’s positive changes in this sphere are the result of the consolidated actions of Muslim religious organizations and the country’s government. In my opinion, today it is extremely important to work on creating a unified database on Islamic educational organizations, which will greatly facilitate the work and make it more effective’, Zianshina noted.
Rector of the Russian Islamic Institute, Chairman of the Council on Islamic Education Rafik Mukhametshin agreed with his colleague’s words, noting that there was no complete base of all Islamic educational institutions: ‘In accordance with the lists of the Ministry of Justice, 80 Muslim educational institutions have been registered, but their condition is unknown. The Council on Islamic Education is working actively in this direction: all Muslim educational institutions that are members of the Council on Islamic Education work according to the educational standards, which we developed and adopted. This significantly increases the level of Islamic education’.
In his turn, Director of the Foundation for the Support of Islamic Culture, Science and Education, professor at the Department of Theology of the Academy Ali Vyacheslav Polosin noted that the Foundation cooperated closely with the Council on Islamic Education and the Bolgarian Islamic Academy, which had commissioned the publication of ‘Civil Identity of Muslims of Russia’ textbook, about the presentation of which we wrote earlier. In his speech, Polosin drew attention of the audience to the fact that modern specialists in the field of Islamic education should pay attention to new formats of conveying information. ‘Today’s youth is ‘sitting’ on the Internet and they have a clichéd mindset. Their attention is constantly being switched and this has to be taken into account as given. It is necessary to make interesting audio and video lectures about Islam, 10-15 minutes each, for them. Our specialists and professionals have to acquire these forms of winning attention of young people, otherwise it will be done by those who practise radical views’, Ali Vyacheslav concluded.
Islamic theology
The development of theological education in Russia is becoming a strategic direction of internal and external state policy. Today we are witnessing a clear understanding of the fact that inter-religious and inter-confessional harmony in the country should be based on available and high-quality religious education system, capable of carefully integrating national traditions and included in a common educational space. This idea is supported by the participants of the Bolgarian conference. Thus, Acting Rector of the Bolgarian Islamic Academy Ainur Timerkhanov noted in his welcoming speech that theological education occupied a very important place in the scientific and educational space of Russia and foreign countries. ‘The future of the Islamic community largely depends on the current state and solution of main problems of training specialists with a qualitative knowledge of the history of Islamic culture and skills to apply them in the current context of globalization. In this regard, establishment of national schools of religious studies and theology is becoming increasingly important. Theology, first and foremost, is aimed at promoting spiritual growth of people. It is the most important branch of knowledge, which is in contact with many natural sciences and humanities. Theology is developing as an inter-confessional project. This shows that theological education acts as one of the means of ensuring national security in the spiritual sphere, which is important nowadays when there is a mass replacement of traditional values. In this situation it is of particular importance that our students receive adequate information about religion at school and higher education level’, Timerkhanov is convinced.
The conference was held in four directions: ‘Islamic Theological Education in the XXI Century: Current State and Prospects of development’, ‘Islamic Studies and Islamic Theology: Integration on the Ways of Solving Current Problems of Islamic Education’, ‘The Role of National and Foreign Religious and Islamic Studies in the Formation of Russian Muslim Theological Thought’ and ‘Russian Muslims: New Socialization of National Islam’.
Special attention within the framework of the discussions was paid to the issues of fatwa. Thus, according to the First Deputy Mufti of the Republic of Dagestan, Muslim law protects life, mind, religion, offspring and property. The development of modern fatwa is based on these fundamental tenets. ‘Contemporary-oriented fatwas are necessary for society. It is not enough to simply go on the Internet and get answers. In this regard, the issue of training qualified personnel for spiritual administrations of Muslims, where, first of all, people go for advice’, Abdullah Adzhimollayev stressed.
The question of forming a journalist pool on the basis of the Academy was raised separately, for which it is necessary to analyze and systematize the existing positive experience in this direction and develop unified methodological manuals and regulations of work. It is also important not only to work out the concept of scaling positive social work in Muslim organizations, but also to regularly share the accumulated experience in this area.