#22 - JRL 9080 - JRL Home
Context (Moscow Times)
March 4-10, 2005
Rethinking Islam
Ravil Bukharayev has some unconventional thoughts on the Muslim faith -- and what needs to be done to reinvigorate it.
By Alexander Osipovich

In the wake of shocking terrorist attacks such as the 9/11 hijackings and the Beslan hostage crisis, some have speculated that Islam and the West are headed towards an apocalyptic "clash of civilizations." Ravil Bukharayev is not one of them.

A Russian citizen of Tatar descent who works in London for the BBC, Bukharayev is also a poet, playwright and historian with 25 books to his name. While he has tackled a variety of topics -- ranging from religious philosophy to medieval poetry -- all of his books explore one underlying theme: what it means to be a Muslim in Russia. During an interview last weekend in the kitchen of his family's Moscow apartment, Bukharayev argued that Islam was an important, inalienable part of the Russian landscape and that Russia's Muslims could act as a bridge between the Western and Islamic worlds.

"I believe that Russian Islam, if you can call it such, has a huge potential because of the level of education among Russian Muslims. ... [It means] you can have a dialogue with almost anyone," he said.

The 53-year-old author recently wrapped up a tour of Moscow and Kazan to promote two new Russian-language books, both published by Natalis in January. In the first, titled "Nostalgia for Revelation" (Nostalgiya po Otkroveniyu), Bukharayev explores what he calls the "crisis" in modern Islam, delving into the Koran and the history of Muslim thought. The second book, "The Poetry of the Golden Horde" (Poeziya Zolotoi Ordy), is an anthology of medieval Tatar poems, translated into Russian for the first time. Since the study of Tatar literature was suppressed under Soviet rule, the anthology marks a breakthrough in its field; its publication has been noted in a number of media outlets, including the Kultura TV channel.

In "Nostalgia," Bukharayev argues that Islam has descended into rigid, dogmatic adherence to the words of a few powerful mullahs. While the first centuries of Islamic civilization were marked by major achievements in mathematics and astronomy, he writes, the religion is now mired in medieval thinking, wracked with political divisions, and tainted by fundamentalist violence.

"The problem with Islam is that, starting in the mid-11th century, there was this closure of the gates of rational thinking," Bukharayev said.

Terrorism is a symptom of Islam's present-day crisis, the author said. Reiterating a theme from his book, Bukharayev stated that extremist movements like al-Qaida and the Taliban were based on a misinterpretation of Islam -- on verses from the Koran taken out of context and false doctrines that have crept into Muslim practice.

"I strongly believe that any violence in the name of religion comes from man-made dogma, and not from the revelation itself," he said.

The author envisions "Nostalgia" as the foreword to an immense project, titled "Conversations about Northern Islam," about the Muslim faith in Russia. His own reformist ideas reflect the influence of Russian Islam -- which, despite being broken into a bewildering array of sects and schools, has historically been liberal and shied away from fundamentalism. For instance, the Muslim regions of Russia bear a strong imprint from Sufism, a strain of Islam that stresses individual experience over routine book learning. Starting in the late 19th century, these regions became home to a movement called Jadid, which sought the modernization of religious practice and a progressive approach to politics.

Bukharayev's ideas put him at odds with many in the wider Muslim world. In Arab countries in particular, many religious leaders perceive Russia's Muslims as apostates, in need of education after seven decades of official atheism. But Bukharayev counters that they, in fact, are the ones who would benefit from a dialogue with freethinking Russian Islam.

"Aspiring for knowledge ... is a must for every Muslim. It's a must and people don't understand this. The Prophet has said that the ink of a scholar is much more precious than the blood of a martyr," he said.

While Bukharayev has clearly taken this maxim to heart, the author does not have a formal training in history, literature or religion. Instead, Bukharayev holds a degree in mathematics. In this he resembles his parents, both of whom were mathematicians in his native Kazan. But after completing his postgraduate studies at Moscow State University in 1977, Bukharayev decided to become a writer. He penned, among other things, plays for a children's puppet theater. The imprint of a scientific education is still noticeable in his writing today; "Nostalgia" contains references to genetics and Einstein's Theory of Relativity, along with passages from the Koran and by Muslim theologians of the 14th century.

Academics have lauded "Nostalgia," despite the author's lack of a university education in the field. "It's a very important book, in my view, and it's significant that he used primary sources," said Anatoly Khazanov, an expert at the Institute of Oriental Studies in the Russian Academy of Sciences, on Tuesday.

But the ideas espoused in the book may raise eyebrows in some quarters -- in particular because Bukharayev belongs to the Ahmadiyya movement, an offshoot of Islam considered heretical by the vast majority of Muslim leaders. The movement was founded in Pakistan in 1889 by Ghulam Ahmad. Its members, called Ahmadis, adhere to the basic tenets of Islam, such as praying five times a day, but they also believe that their founder was a prophet and that Jesus Christ survived the crucifixion and died of old age in Kashmir. Mainstream Muslims regard the Ahmadiyya movement as a cult, and it is banned in many Muslim countries. Ahmadis claim to have about 100 million followers worldwide, but this figure is disputed by many Muslim organizations.

"The Ahmadiyya community is regarded by Muslims unanimously as a non-Muslim sect, because they breach one of the cardinal tenets of Islam -- that Mohammed was the only prophet," said Inayat Bunglawala, a spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain, on Tuesday.

Bukharayev described the Ahmadiyya movement as a peace-loving community based purely on the Koran. He pointed out that Wahhabism, the influential fundamentalist movement and state religion of Saudi Arabia, was also considered heretical when it first appeared. In an e-mail on Monday, Bukharayev clarified the connection between "Nostalgia" and his Ahmadi beliefs.

"My book is about Islam as it is and not a promotion of specific Ahmadi views. It is an attempt to see the roots of the crisis of the Islamic world, and this crisis is there to see for everyone, except for so-called Islamic scholars who just enrich themselves in the process of keeping people ignorant and blaming others for their own inability to see the light," he wrote.

While Bukharayev's religious arguments can lead to a seemingly intractable dispute between different factions of Islam, there is far more consensus around his poetic efforts.

"The Poetry of the Golden Horde" has been hailed for opening a long-lost chapter of literary history: the poetry of the Tatar civilization that flourished along the Volga River before being absorbed into Russia. After Ivan the Terrible's conquest of Kazan in 1552, the city's library burned down and many manuscripts were lost. Although some poems survived, they remained virtually unknown outside of Tatar circles. In the 20th century, the Soviet regime frowned upon them for their religious and "feudal" nature, and few scholars were able to see them. Fewer still were able to read them, since they were written in an obsolete Tatar script that used Arabic letters.

Bukharayev's anthology marks the first time that the poetry of the Golden Horde has reached a broad Russian-speaking audience. (Many of the poems have already appeared in English, in a book by Bukharayev and David J. Matthews, titled "Historical Anthology of Kazan Tatar Verse: Voices of Eternity," published by Curzon Press.)

For the author, the anthology plays an important role in his overall goal of explaining Islamic culture to the West, and vice versa.

"It is very easy to say that some culture is great. Like, for example, we can say that the Muslim culture of Russia is so great. ... But you have to show examples," Bukharayev said. The examples he chose were pieces of classic Tatar poetry. "In Russia this is especially important, because I argue and maintain that this is a piece of greater Russian culture. And if people realize that, then it become much easier to speak to your neighbor."

"Nostalgia for Revelation" (Nostalgiya po Otkroveniyu) and "The Poetry of the Golden Horde" (Poeziya Zolotoi Ordy) are published by Natalis.