Will Egypt give Tatarstan a representative office of ‘Islamic Oxford’?
Branches of Al-Azhar University may appear in Kazan and Grozny
Details of a real sensation for Russian Muslims were known on Thursday. Founded over one thousand years ago, an Egyptian Al-Azhar University, the most authoritative educational establishment in the Islamic World, unexpectedly made some concessions during the negotiations with the official Muslim Spirituality of Russia. In particular, representative offices of the oldest Islamic university of the world may appear in the country. According to some data, it was a personal initiative of the President of Egypt, who wants to be closer to Russia after a terrible autumn incident with a Kogalymavia Airbus. As experts of Realnoe Vremya suppose, the opening of the new university will help to control the flow of religious people from Russia and will probably be a prevention of extremism.
Is it a branch or not?
Branches of Al-Azhar University may appear in Kazan and Grozny. This information appeared in the mass media on Thursday, on 31 March. A delegation of Russian Muslim scholars who represent the largest muftiates of our country – Muslim Spirituality Directorate of Tatarstan, Central Muslim Spirituality Directorate of Russia, Muslim Spirituality Directorate of Russia and Muslim Spirituality Directorate of Chechnya are in Egypt these days.
As the rector of Russian Islamic Institute (Kazan) and the chairman of the Islamic Education Council Rafik Mukhametshin informed Realnoe Vremya, agreements with the Egyptian party on close cooperation were reached. He explained that there would be a representative office of the Egyptian university in Kazan, but it is not a branch.
What about Bolgar?
The chairman of the Central Muslim Spirituality Directorate of Russia and Chief Mufti Talgat Tadzhuddin noted in an interview with Realnoe Vremya that the creation of a representative body of Al-Azhar University in Russia should have a positive impact on the Islamic education in the country.
'It is a worldwide known university that has been existing for 1,100 years,' the Chief Mufti stressed. 'I got a religious education there. Now the university has secular faculties, but religious subjects are also present. Anyway, I hope that the cooperation of our higher education institutions on preparation of specialists of Muslim spirituality will be beneficial.'
In case of the appearance of the university,Tadzhuddin doubts that the Kazan and Grozny branches of Al-Azhar University might compete with Bolgarian Islamic Academy, whose construction will begin this spring.
'Undoubtedly, these branches will collaborate with Bolgarian Islamic Academy. It is supposed to invite professors from Egypt who will be able to teach in both universities.'
Moreover, scientists from Egypt will help to decode old Arab manuscripts kept in archives of Tatarstan. As TASS informs citing the first chairman of the Muslim Spirituality Directorate of Tatarstan Rustam Batrov, translated endeavours of Islamic theologians will be used in teaching in the Bolgarian Academy.
Russian Islamic universities is a preparation for the Egyptian
The second agreement with the Arabs is that the Russian Islamic universities will be equalized to the primary level of the Egyptian Al-Azhar University, which is not supposed to be higher education in the Arab Republic of Egypt and other Arab countries.
It gives an opportunity to graduated students, for example, Russian Islamic Institute, to get in any faculty of the oldest Al-Azhar University,' the press service of the Muslim Spiritual Directorate of Tatarstan informs.
However, the deputy mufti of Tatarstan Rustam Khairullin thinks that it is the first step. He expressed his confidence that this way, there will be more people who would like to get a classic Islamic education.
'Al-Azhar University just does not sign some agreements. It is possible that it is a tentative step. They will see in practice that our students are strong and can study further, not at primary level,' Hazrat Rustam shared his opinion with Realnoe Vremya.
'Not join bands'
According to the agreements, now no citizen of Russia will be able to enter Al-Azhar University without a corresponding permission of CIO.
Talgat Tadzhuddin is convinced that this step will help to fight against radical acts.
'There is a large group of people who get in Al-Azhar to obtain a residence visa. They don't attend their classes, they are expelled. We are ashamed for it. This is why this decision was made. May those people who really want to study go there but not those who goes to wear out the seat of their trousers or run a business,' Khairullin explained.
As he says, now spiritual directorates will be able to control completely those who get in and filter out underqualified students. 'Young people should come back with a desire to work, not join bands.'
The press service of the Muslim Spiritual Directorate of the Russian Federation also informed that there will possible be created a league of Russian graduated students of Al-Azhar. But the Chief Mufti noted that there are not many students in Russia who graduated from the Egyptian university. But he found that the idea was attractive.
For example, more than ten Tatarstan people, who studied in the university, are working in the republic, according to Khairullin.
Political convergence
Earlier the negotiations with the Egyptian university were not so successful.
As the Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the Arab Republic of Egypt Sergey Kirpichenko presupposed, the tractability of the administration of Al-Azhar in the person of Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb is connected with the corresponding policy of the very President of Egypt.
Mr. el-Tayeb is a very powerful person in the Islamic World. He may be included in the top list of the most powerful Muslims. He was the Chief Mufti of Egypt for some time, so now he is the Grand Imam of the Islamic university, a religious leader, in fact.
'Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb is a very authoritative person. He was the chairman of the university, now he is a Sheikh of Al-Azhar. This person has a very progressive outlook and actively supports the conservation of traditional Islam,' Tadzhuddin characterized him.
It can be presupposed that this tractability is linked with an aspiration of the President of the Arab country General Abdel Fattah Saeed Hussein Khalil el-Sisi to converge with Russia after the terrible incident in October 2015 when a Kogalymavia Airbus with 224 people on board crashed en route from Sharm el-Sheikh to Saint Petersburg, and a sympathy with the President of Russia Vladimir Putin.
After the last telephone conversation, it was told in official sources that they 'came to an agreement on the continuance of bilateral contacts at different levels', including the renewal of flight between the countries and for cooperation on fight against international terrorism.