Window On Eurasia: Ukraine’s Muslims Are Part of ‘Muslim European Community’
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posted by eagle on May, 2009 as ANALYSIS / OPINION
Paul Goble
Baku, May 15 -- “Ukraine is a European country and the Muslims of Ukraine are part of the Muslim European community,” according to the head of the Federation of Islamic Organizations of Europe (FIOE) – yet another way in which the people of Ukraine are underscoring their attachment to Europe rather than Eurasia.
During a visit to the Islamic Cultural Center in Kyiv last week, Shakib Benmakhlyuf, FIOE president, not only stressed the Europeanness of Ukraine and of Ukraine’s Muslims but “positively assessed” both the speed of Islamic rebirth there and “the public activity” of Islamic community there (www.islam.in.ua/3/ukr/full_news/2801/visibletype/1/index.html).
In response, Mufti Said Ismagilov, the head of the Muslim Spiritual Directorate (MSD) of Ukraine, said his community would like to expand its cooperation with FIOE and that he and the Muslims of Ukraine believe that the recent adoption of the Charter of Muslims of Europe can promote more active ties among European countries.
Convinced ...
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RFE/RL: Nemtsov Challenges Sochi Mayoral Election Results
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posted by eagle on as ANALYSIS / OPINION
Nemtsov Challenges Sochi Mayoral Election ResultsMay 14, 2009 SOCHI -- The co-chairman of Russia's opposition Solidarity movement, Boris Nemtsov, has officially appealed to the Sochi city court to annul the results of last month's mayoral election.
Nemtsov's lawyer, Aleksandr Glushenkov, told RFE/RL's Russian Service that numerous violations took place during the election campaign.
Anatoly Pakhomov, a candidate from the pro-Kremlin United Russia party, has officially been declared the winner of the April 26 election.
According to Russia's Central Election Commission, he received 77 percent of the vote. Nemtsov officially received over 13 percent of the vote.
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Window On Eurasia: Amalrik’s 1969 Predictions About The USSR Apply To Russia Now, Analyst Says
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posted by eagle on as ANALYSIS / OPINION
Paul Goble
Baku, May 14 – Andrey Amalrik’s 1969 samizdat text, “Will the Soviet Union Survive until 1984?” remains instructive for those who want to understand not only why the USSR ended as it did but also for also why the Russian Federation faces many of the same threats to its existence, according to a Moscow commentator.
In an essay in the current issue of “Gazeta,” Sergey Shelin argues that the continuing relevance of Amalrik’s work can be seen by replacing the word “Soviet” with the word “Russian” and considering his precisely worded academic argument rather than just his final judgment on the Soviet system (www.gazeta.ru/comments/2009/05/13_a_2985726.shtml).
Amalrik’s text, composed in the second quarter of 1969, immediately distinguished itself, Shelin notes, from most of the samizdat at that time by both its focus – on the future rather than on the current situation or the past – and its tone – one ...
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Window On Eurasia: Bill against ‘Rehabilitation Of Fascism’ Likely To Have Negative Consequences For Russia Itself, Pavlova Says
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posted by eagle on as ANALYSIS / OPINION
Paul Goble
Baku, May 14 – The authors of draft Russian legislation intended to prevent “the rehabilitation of Nazism” on the territory of the former republics of the USSR and most of those who have commented on it have focused on the ways such a law could be used by Moscow against the governments of some of these countries.
But Irina Pavlova, one of the most thoughtful Moscow commentators on public life there, argues that the real and far more negative impact of this legislation is likely to be on the Russian Federation itself, where, she suggests, this legislation sets the stage for the re-imposition of a Soviet-style official version of the Russian past (grani.ru/Politics/Russia/m.151005.html).
In an essay she entitled “An Afterward to Victory Day,” Pavlova argues that “far from everyone understands the genuine meaning of this legislative initiative.” And she seeks to provide it by noting that ...
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Window On Eurasia: Conflict Between ‘Official’ And ‘Unofficial’ Islam Arose After 1991, Russian Orientalist Says
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posted by eagle on as ANALYSIS / OPINION
Paul Goble
Baku, May 14 – The conflict between “official” Islam – which includes those institutions supported and sometimes controlled by Moscow – and “unofficial” or underground Islam – which opposes those institutions in the name of the true faith -- did not begin in Soviet times but rather after the collapse of the USSR, according to a leading Russian orientalist.
In part, this is a game of definitions – what people mean or have meant by these two categories has changed over time – but in another, Vladimir Bobrovnikov’s point, made in comments to the Regnum news agency, strikes at a fundamental set of assumptions long made by Western and Russian researchers (www.regnum.ru/news/1162403.html).
Perhaps more important, Bobrovnikov, an expert on Islam in the North Caucasus at the Academy of Sciences Institute of Oriental Studies, is a member of the Russian justice ministry’s Expert Council on State Religious Expertise. And consequently, ...
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