Renat Nabiev
Ph.D., Council on Religious Affairs, Cabinet of Ministries of the Republic of Tatarstan, Kazan, Tatarstan
Aydar Khabutdinov
Ph.D., Kazan Filial of the Russian Academy of Justice, Kazan, Tatarstan
Inter-confessional tolerance in the structure of identity of Russian Muslims
Inter-confessional tolerance is a factor that has formed over a long period of time and requires constant interaction of partners respecting religious freedom. When Muslim states were established in the Middle-Volga region, inter-confessional tolerance was institutionalized within the framework of sharia and yasa and became one of the basic principles in the identity of Turko-Muslims belonging to Hanafit maskhab. Religious tolerance was a constant. But the principles of inter-religious tolerance were upset amid violent Christianization (mid.17-mid.18 cc.) and during the Soviet era, particularly in the late 1920s, when authorities fought against religion. The fundamentals of the religious tolerance in the Russian state were established by the decree on religious freedom issued in 1773 of Ekaterina II. At the same time, Russian Muslims deviated from the model of Islamic state as the only possible form of existence for the Muslim community (umma).
On the level of state-Islamic relations, there was cooperation between Muslim religious elites (represented by “appointed mullahs” of the Orenburg Religious Board), Muslim secular elites (represented by the elders of Tatar settlements), feudal lords of Bashkiria, and the Russian state (represented by supreme authorities). The Orenburg Religious Board, assigned its jurisdiction territory and its groups among Muslims elites, determined the main participants of the inter-confessional dialog. In the 1920s, during the NEP period, the sides of this triangle included the following: clergy of Central Muslim Religious Board (CMRB), authorities of autonomous Tatarstan and central authorities. Today we talk about cooperation and mutual recognition between Muslim Religious Board of Tatarstan, authorities of Tatarstan Republic and the central government.
Key principles for all these periods included the acknowledgement of the necessity of autonomous religious structures, religious freedom and freedom of religious education. These requirements did not contradict the basis of Russian state and society. In practice, religious autonomy of Muslims was limited even in the most liberal periods of tsarist and Soviet Russia; however a clear understanding of the inevitable movement in this direction within the evolutional development of the country existed. Development of a civil society of Muslims in this region began from the liberal modernization that started in the age of Ekaterina II. The aforementioned principles of religious autonomy were expressed in the orders of Muslim deputies to the Ulojennaja komissiya. Mass petitions of Muslims of CMRB district during NEP time are de facto the same as programs of the second half of the 18th century.
Today, modernization of these demands is connected with the structuring of boundaries and commissions of regions within their constitutions and the 1993 Russian Federation constitution. At the same time, effective functioning of the principles of inter-confessional tolerance among Russian Muslims could not be possible without interaction with Russian society and other religious communities of the Middle-Volga region – first of all, with the Orthodox community. A particular role was played Russian intellectual elites – first of all, by the class of nobility. Key figures in this process were professors of Kazan University, particularly during rector office of Nikolai Lobachevskiy (1827-1846); while the Oriental department existed (1807-1855); and during first years of Soviet regime, when modernization and Europeanization of the citizens was supported with respect for Muslim religious traditions. Later recognition of Muslim’s rights to equality and religious self-sufficiency united district and city leaders, liberal and socialistic parties.
Thus, a centuries-long functioning of the inter-confessional tolerance in the identity structure of Russian Muslims in the Middle-Volga region seems to be impossible without interaction between central state and regional authorities, religious organizations, and between Russian civil society and civil society of Russian Muslims. Particularly, this interaction prevented wars and ethnic and religious cleansings in the Middle-Volga region. Today, to preserve and strengthen inter-confessional tolerance in the region, it is necessary to broaden the number of participants of these relations as well as publicity of the policy in the sphere of state-confessional relations. That is why dialog between representatives of different confessions with the preservation of their identity in civil society is an important mechanism to guarantee inter-confessional tolerance.
