Islam in Ukraine - mosques

Turkey to build Crimea’s largest mosque

editor — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 09:17:14 +0000

Turkey is going to fully finance the construction of Crimea’s largest mosque, Crimea's Grand Mufti said on Sunday.

Crimea Autonomous Republic’s Grand Mufti Emir Ali Ablayev said that the Russian administration approved the project, which they had been trying to implement for 10 years, from before Crimea joined the Russian Federation.

The mosque will be constructed in Crimea’s capital, which Crimean Tatars refer to as “Akmescit,” while Russians call it “Simferopol.”

“The worship venue will be built in an area of 2,500 square meters (26,909 square feet), and, together with the courtyard and the fountain, it will cover 5,000 square meters (53,819 square feet),” Ablayev said, adding that “about 5,000 Muslims will be able to worship at the same time.”

He said that the mosque would be named “The Friday Mosque.”

Ercan Bekar, the owner of the Istanbul-based construction company Erbek Insaat which will build the mosque, said that within days the cornerstone of the mosque would be laid. He said that the construction company has 36 months to build the mosque, but the aim is to finish the construction within 24 months.

Bekar said that the mosque complex would include a “home for the Imam, library, car park, and market center. The project represents Turkish architecture,” Bekar said.

The Crimean Grand Mufti said “Turkey’s Presidency for Religious Affairs provided every kind of support for the implementation of this project, which will be Crimea’s largest Mosque. Turkey will fully finance the construction of the Mosque.”

The Grand Mufti said that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, former President Abdullah Gul, and the Head of Presidency for Religious Affairs Mehmet Gormez have helped the project to receive approval first from Ukrainian authorities, and then from the Russian authorities.

The Crimean Autonomous Republic was annexed by the Russian Federation in March 2014.

Source: World Bulletin

30/09/2015

Rate this article:

Tags:

Mufti

mosques

Turkey

Crimea

Crimean Muslims

Crimean Tatars

islam in Crimea

Giray's Faith — the roots of moderate Islam of the Crimean Tatars are buried in the history of this people

editor — Wed, 29 Jul 2015 09:24:42 +0000

The legend has it that Islam proliferated in Crimea owing to two associates of Prophet Muhammad Malik al-Ashtar and Ghazi Mansour as early as the 7th century A.D. Yet it is more likely that the peninsula turned Muslim owing to Turks rather than Arabs. It came as a result of a conquest in the 13th century. In 1222 Sudak and Solkhat (now Staryi Krym or Old Crimea) were temporarily held by the Seljuks under the leadership of Amir Husain-ad-din Choban, the military chief of the famous Seljuk sultan Alaeddin Keykubad I. After one year they were displaced by the Mongols led by Genghis Khan's eldest son Jochi. They ruled Crimea for the two following centuries. The first Golden Horde leader to adopt Islam was Berke Khan, Batu's brother. This ruler did not carry out forced islamisation of the population, which at the time included Tengriists, Christians and Judaists among others. At the same time khan's documents contain mentions of "Sheiks and Sufis" next to officials and ruling classes of the khanate. The oldest mosque on the peninsula was built in 1262 in Solkhat by a Bukhara native. But oldest remaining ruins are of the mosque complex commissioned directly by the Mamluk Sultan Baibars in 1288. After 1475 when the Ottoman Turks captured Caffa the Crimean peninsula fell under the influence of the Turkish Islam with all of its implications. That is when the Hanafi Sunni Islam (one of the four main Islamic schools of jurisprudence) was proclaimed the official religion of the Crimean Khanate, while the Turkish Padishah became the caliph of all Sunnis. This period saw the formation of the unique Turkic-Muslim culture, which had a considerable influence on Crimea and the adjacent territories up until 1917.

The Mongol and Ottoman empires, as well as the Crimean Khanate within them appear to be rather diverse countries in terms of ethnicity and religion, countries, the rulers of which were devoid of religious fanaticism. Even proclaiming Sunni Islam as the official religion of the state they did not carry out sweeping systemic Islamisation of the followers of other religions populating the land, they realized that religious conflicts would only weaken the state. It's worth noting that in the case of the Crimean Khanate the process of adopting Islam was not completed until the 18th century. 'In the context of converting the story of the Crimean Greek population, which was deported by Catherine II to what is currently the south of Donetsk region, is very telling. Among them were the Turkic Urums, whose language is in many ways closer to the Crimean Tatar one, rather than other Turkic languages. In order to avoid deportation entire villages converted to Islam. Turkic-speaking Muslim equaled Crimean Tatar, and the latter weren't subject to deportation. So entire villages on the South Coast of Crimea, which had been Christian for centuries became Muslim. Many of the current residents in those parts believe they are Crimean Tatars, although in reality they have Greek roots', says the Crimean Tatar independent journalist Dilaver Saidakhmetov. Seiran Afirov, who used to be mufti of a Simferopol mosque before Crimea's annexation adds: 'In the Ottoman Empire those, who converted from Islam to other religions were punished only if they partook in military campaigns against Porte. In such a case they were accused not of apostasy, but of treason. In all other cases there were attempts to persuade such persons to turn back to Islam in a peaceful manner.'

Crimea of madrassas and Sufis

The Crimean peninsula had always been not on the outskirts of the Muslim world, but rather one of its cultural and education centers, at the crossroads of the pathways from countries in the Middle East and Central Asia, of Turkey and Persia, which allowed acquiring and accumulating knowledge, and having own input both in theology and law, as well as in science. Unfortunately, not many in today's Ukraine know about this. Orientalist Mykhaylo Yakubovych notes: “The Crimean Khanate is the territory from the Dnipro's rapids to Crimea, Azov and so forth. It has cultural likeness to Yedysan – the lands between the Dniester and the Bug, and Budjak — the lands between the Danube and the Dniester, which is the Northern Black Sea cultural region'. According to Yakubovych, among the world famous ulamas, judges, scientists, philosophers were the natives of this region, known as Caffavi (of Caffa), Qirimi or Karayimi, Akkermani etc. There were also names like al-Deshti (for example Ibrahim al-Meghmed al-Dashti Tatarsheikh), so those were the natives from what is currently the territory of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. The orientalist underscores that the residents of Crimea made a substantial contribution in the three main domains of the Muslim culture. 'The matter of traditional Islamic Hanafi law has been developed by many authors, beginning with Sharafaddin al-Qirimi in the 15th century, and all the way to Addousadar al-Qirimi, the author of commentary to "Medjele" (the code of Ottoman law)”, — the scholar continues. “The other element is kalam, the Islamic speculative theology. There was a whole cluster of Crimean authors, including Abu l'Baka al-Caffavi, the son of Caffa's mufti, who wrote "Kitab al-Kulliyat" ("Book of general notions"), an enormous work in Arabic containing 3,000 definitions. Their version of Denis Diderot, if you like. In the 18th century there were such authors as Mughammad al-Akkermani and Mughammad al-Caffavi. These two belong to Calizadeliph, the reformation movement in Islamic theology, which stood for modernization and the return to Sunna.”

The Crimean Tatars' contribution to Sufism deserves a separate mention. Up until 1917 there were active spiritual centers representing four Sufi schools: Naqshbandi, Khalwati, Qadri and Mevlevi. The Naqshbandi and Khalwati representatives had the biggest presence and made the greatest intellectual contribution. “Out of the former it is worth mentioning Abd al-Baki Hijabi, the creator of "Risale Zubdet ul-Islam", written in Ottoman language; out of the former — the 15th century author Aghmad al-Qirimi, the proponent of ibn-Arabi views on equality of being, who substantiated a philosophical ontology” — Mykhaylo Yakubovych states. Ibrahim al-Qirimi was a unique Khalwati thinker, the author of "Mawahib, ar-rahman fi-bayan maratib al-ikhwan" ("Gifts of the Merciful in Understanding of the Stages of Being") dedicated to the Ottoman sultan Mourad III, with a range of illustrations. One should also mention the representatives of the Qadri tariqate, particularly Selima Divane Qirimli, the 18th century Ottoman language author from Skopje, who wrote the well-known "Burhan-ul-Arifin we Nejatu al-Ghafilin" ("Guidance for the Knowing and Salvation of the Oblivious"). Who knows, perhaps it were these Sufis, who gave the present-day Crimean Tatars the tradition of honoring the aziz sites (important burial grounds of scientists, dervishes, military, who were made into saints by storytelling and the passing of time).

Crimea had its Islamic universities, the madrasas. Zincirli Madrasa is the famous one, but there were more. In 1332 with the support of Uzbek Khan emerged one of the first Muslim higher education schools of the peninsula – the Indji-bek Khatun Madrasa. Its first teachers were scientists from Persia and Central Asia. In the 15-16th centuries emerged the first generation of native Crimean Tatar scientists. They seek opportunities to move to other Muslim education centers overseas, in particular to Istanbul. According to Mykhayko Yakubovych, this speaks not of their parochial nature, but on the contrary, of active cultural exchange, which deserves deeper research.

The roots of moderation

Many wonder how come the Islam embraced by the Crimean Tatars — one of Ukraine's indigenous peoples — did not become radical in the present circumstances. There are a number of reasons. First and foremost it is the manifestation of the Turkic Islamic tradition described above. Another reason is that for more than two centuries Islam for the Crimean Tatars has been a private matter, not a social or political one. Ever since Crimea was annexed by the Russian Empire in 1784, Crimean Tatars were devoid of statehood and their religion no longer served as an instrument of politics. Therefore, as both mufti Seiran Afirov and the orientalist Mykhaylo Yakubovych describe it, all Islamic processes took place in non-Islamic context. “The Volga and the Crimean Tatars are ethnicities who underwent modernization in non-Islamic environment. That is why the ideologies of political Islam that are characteristic of some Arabic states, aren't viewed as adequate by the Crimean Tatars. The Hanafi tradition got isolated within non-Islamic environment,” – the scholar says. That is why the Crimean Islam is a European one, to a great extent a cultural one. The ideas of the ISIS and caliphate for this very reason are seen by them as something far-out.

According to Seiran Afirov, the formation of moderate Islam took place not without interference by the Soviet regime, as the representatives of this ethnic group got forcibly relocated to Central Asia. “In 1917 during the national liberation struggle, which was suppressed by the Bolsheviks, the Crimean Tatars lost the majority of their cultural elite, in which ulamas, imams and qadis (Muslim judges) played a significant role. Religious literature was destroyed, madrasas and mosques were closed. The number of people able to read religious literature written in old Crimean Tatar language using Arabic script was declining. As a consequence in a few decades Muslims in Crimea lost their respective knowledge and skills, while new religious books were in short supply. Basically, from 1917 to practically the late 1980s we had virtually no Islam at all. It was only preserved in the memory and the practices followed by the regular people,” states the imam.

The latter is something that every Crimean Tatar person can tell you all about recalling the customs of his family. Sunnet (circumcision), nikah (marriage), talaq (divorce) janazah (funeral), the ban on consuming pork… And that's about it. Nikah had been followed during the Soviet era rather as a tribute to tradition, as the anti-religion state policy has a significant impact. Extremely significant were the representatives of the clergy, who still remembered at least the basics of the Islamic teaching passing it them from one to another or from older relatives, who were also imams. Seiran Afirov recalls that in Central Asia the Crimean Tatars made an effort to stand out of the local community, which was also Turkic, in order to avoid assimilation. 'Most of the religious rites were conducted by Crimean mullahs. Only in times of large holidays like Sawm or Kurban Bayram (Eid al-Adha) the Crimean Tatars would join the local Muslims, where Uzbek or Kazakh imams headed the proceedings.' Generally Afirov describes the religious situation of the Crimean Tatars up until 1989 as something resembling complete vacuum imposed by the Soviet authorities, an information vacuum, which could be filled with fables and superstition. Someone had to counter this with adequate religious knowledge.

Ukraine's independence gave the Crimean Tatars the opportunity to return home and a chance to restore Islamic faith on the peninsula. The religious crisis, which span over 50 years had to be overcome somehow, to study religion all over again using different sources, of which there were several, particularly Turkic and Arabic. Already in the early 1990s the Muslims of Turkey established contact with Crimea's first mufti Seitdjelil Ibrahimov and the Crimean muftiate. They opened a number of madrasas, sent literature and welcomed the graduates of Crimean madrasas for advanced studies (Crimean madrasas used to provide only a 1-2 year primary course). Owing to the Turks the Crimean Tatars received access to ilahiyat (Muslim faculties) in various Turkish universities. The Turkish influence included those who brought a variety of minute details of Turkish Islamic tradition to Crimea. As far as ideology is concerned, those belong to moderate Islam. There were, however, rather rigid Sufis, who were adamant that only their views were true. The followers of Fethullah Gülen, a branch of the Risale-I Nur Movement, presented another separate line.

The other source was Arabic. In 1990s students from Arabic countries began coming to Crimea in order to work with the locals. They toured the villages, conducted one- or two-week long courses, as well as Sunday classes to get the locals acquainted with Islam. While they were not Muslim scholars, each of them possessed religious knowledge far deeper than the majority of the Crimean Tatar mullahs could boast. In terms of interpretation of Islam, the Arabic world is not homogenous either. Some belong to moderate movements, some to Salafist, "Hizb ut-Tahrir", Al-Ahbash etc. As a result, Islam on the Crimean peninsula is in a way a projection of the modern Islamic world, where different movements balance each other out, not allowing any one of them to dominate.

Source: The Ukrainian Week

29/07/2015

Rate this article:

Tags:

Historical Mosque Of Eupatoria Attacked By Raiders

oleg — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 14:57:30 +0000

Members of religious community “Khan-Jami” affiliated with the famous Juma Jami in Eupatoria reported the raiders attack on the mosque. Dismissed members of the community report the illegal election of the new members, embezzlement, and the community’s forced submission to the newly created “Tavrian Muftiate” (instead of Religious Administration of Muslims of Crimea, RAMC).

The ATR TV-channel reports that the “coup” in Khan-Jami occurred over a month ago, when Mr.Elmar Abdulganiev, then Imaam, initiated gathering an assembly in order to elect some new members of the community. Many acting members, however, didn’t know anything about the assembly.

According to Mr. Riza Abkhzirov, head of the religious community “Khan Jami”, the Imaam stuck to his guns and started the voting process with only those members who were present. The acting members were dismissed without even hearing their reports on their activities, and 12 new members were elected instead. The new members were mostly from the Khabashi sect.

Former members also accuse their successors of embezzlement of money kept in the mosque’s safe. After the elections, the safe containing RUR 191,000, USD 8,000, TRY 500 and EUR 45 was broke open.

In his turn, Imaam Elmar Abdulganiev sais that all the accusations are proofless, that the elections were legal, and that they had to break the safe open as the former provisor refused to give this money to the newly-elected community members.

Mr. Abdulganiev confirmed, however, that the renewed community refused to conform with RAMC and decided to conform to the newly created Tavrian Muftiate.

RAMC, in their turn, won’t let stand the coup in “Khan-Jami” community. They announced that the mosque itself and all its property belong to RAMC and no transfer of it is legal without a permission from RAMC. They are filing complaints to supervisory authorities at the moment.

15/09/2014

Rate this article:

Tags:

Media War Against Muslim Organisations Launched in Crimea

oleg — Mon, 23 Jun 2014 22:50:04 +0000

After 23 years of Ukrainian Muslim communities’ peaceful development (including those on Crimean peninsula), some Russian “experts” found a seminary of extremism there - all of a sudden. Who stands to gain from destabilization of interfaith relation on the peninsula? What does Mr. Silantyev strive for by seeing extremism in the Muslim communities’ project of social importance? Does he realise the possible consequence of panic he tries to spread all of nothing in a region, where the political, economical and social situation is extremely difficult? Where will it lead us to? These are the matters demanding the society’s close attention.

Authority’s nonintervention in the religious communities’ internal affairs is the basic principle of any secular society. It was observed in Ukraine through all of the years of its independence, and that observation was constant and strict. National legislation determining organisation and registration of the religious communities always has been and still remains rather liberal even comparing to many western countries.

Precedents when some communities were banned because of their belonging to some or other religious organisation were totally absent. So were the so-called “lists of forbidden Islamic or Christian editions”. Despite some problems in situ, religious organisations had a wide range of possibilities in registration and performing their activities for developing and and accomplishing their interests. Such police was held regarding social organisations as well.

Despite some destabilizing efforts of some parties, there have been no open conflicts based on religion or ethnicity in Ukraine. Our society has always had a higher level of tolerance than the neighbouring countries. Ukraine didn’t experience such things as ethnic massacres, persecution for race, mysterious “fundamentalist” and “islamist” organisations, etc.

On this ground, different Muslim organisations and communities could implement their projects and worked actively for the sake of Ukrainian society. Many Muslim communities of the country, because of their principles and firm pro-Ukrainian position, became an important factor of stability and interfaith consent in the society.

Religious Administration of Muslims of Crimea along with AUASO “Alraid” and other organisations carried out a productive work through latest 15 years in order to develop balanced relations between people of different confessions, including their work on the peninsula. Some dishonest pseudo-specialists, politicians and journalists, though, tried to denigrate these organisations from time to time though.

Merits of the Muslim community in developing Crimea and maintaining peace and rest are hard to overestimate. All-Ukrainian Association of Social Organisations “Alraid” held annual conferences devoted to interfaith and interconfessional dialogue, young generation’s moral education, etc. They always invited representatives of the governing bodies, and those representatives, including those who work for Crimea’s present-day authorities, often took the invitation. Dozens of mosques were built and restored, 17 regular schools were reconstructed in the close cooperation of “Alraid” and RAMC. Besides, Muslim organisations actively participated in developing and implementing many social programmes, namely providing the repatriate families with wells and greenhouses, financial support for orphans, etc.

Unfortunately, today’s situation in Crimea turned for the worse. Some parties demonstrated their obvious attempts to destabilize the situation over past three weeks by overloading anti-Islamic moods and provocations. They accuse the RAMC, Crimean Tatar Mejlis and other organisations or their “financial ties with radical Islamic organisations” more and more often. Frankly speaking, such accusations for RAMC, Mejlis and “Alraid” occurred earlier as well, mostly in openly pro-Russian media.

Due to the latest events such activities of Russian Media are more and more like a well-prepared propaganda campaign. Its aim is obviously to deface RAMC and local Muslim communities, and also replace unfavorable leaders for more Russian-oriented ones. It bears reminding that Russian famous Islamofobia ideologist Mr. Roman Silantyev, known for his anti-Islamic moods and accusing Muslims of radicalism, came to Crimea and gave a press-conference.

He behave oddly and even accused one of Russia’s most reputable religious organisations, namely Council of Muftis of Russia, in links with terrorists. It bears reminding that Shaikh Ravil Gainutdin, who is the Head of that Council, as well as the famous Islamic preacher Mr, Shamil Alyautdinov, who is known for his moderate views, visited Crimea in April in order to meet the RAMC Mufti Mr. Emirali Ablaev. Thus, prominent Muslim leaders of Russian Federation expressed their will for cooperation with Crimea’s most reputable Muslim organisation.

Destructive forces in Crimea and beyond, nevertheless, want to draw an image of “the new enemy” instead of the Right Sector who never came to the peninsula. They use the same techniques for that: manipulations, blatant lies, faking facts and substitution of notions.

Source: arraid.org

24/06/2014

Rate this article:

Tags:

In Crimea to Forbid Night Loud Azan Proclaiming

oksana — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 19:00:31 +0000

In Crimea they call to forbid use of loud speaking equipments at azan reading at night as it creates high noise level beside a mosque and displeases local residents. Nina Berestan the chief of a site of municipal hygiene of sanitarian-epidemic station, informed on it in her interview to the New Channel.

"Nowadays in all mosques calls not muezzin, but the call to prayer sounds only through dynamics. Excess goes through dynamics, we brought an attention to the question, and in 2008 suggested to forbid using of loud speaking equipment at night", N.Berestan said.

Azan is proclaimed six times a day. For the call on approach of the time of an obligatory prayer, muezzin - the attendant of a mosque, rises on minaret gallery, faces towards Kaaba and, touching with thumbs of hands lobes of his ears, starts the call to prayer.

At the time of the Prophet Muhammad azan was read exclusively by force of one's own voice. With the development of science and techniques, to make azan be heard by greater quantity of Muslims, the loud speaking equipment started to be used for the call to prayer.

As the assistant to the Mufti of Muslims of Crimea Ayder Ismailov told to the television channel, "Before there were so many mosques, and there was no such an equipment. And consequently the Mullah rose on a minaret and read aloud. Nowadays there are very few mosques, and also there is development of science and techniques, therefore there is no need to rise on a minaret".

However according to Crimean non—Muslims who live nearby mosques, use of loudspeakers for reading azan at night and, especially, early in the morning, creates certain inconveniences.

"5am is a time for sleep. One wants to sleep so much. You wake up so, you shudder. Very loud penetrating sound. You wait until it will end. My grand daughter, they lived here two days, simply did not sleep, she was capricious, she woke up, and then she simply could not fall asleep again", the inhabitant of Simferopol Marina Kurnakova complains.

In the Spiritual Management of Muslims of Crimea they assure that there are no problems with local population. "Here azan is proclaimed for more than 20 years, and there were no such complaints, therefore there are no any problems with the population", A.Ismailov noted.

According to official measurements of sanitarian-epidemic station, the noise level beside the mosque reaches 80 decibels. And sanitary code establishes admissible noise level in the afternoon 40, and at night no more than 30 decibels. Moreover, according to the law, loud noise from 22pm to 7am is an administrative offence. At this time loud singing and shouts, and also using of loud speaker equipment is forbidden.

The question of call to prayer is successfully decided in Yalta where in a local mosque morning azan is read without application of loudspeakers – exclusively by live voice of a muezzin.

By the New Channel

Kebir Djami reconstruction is finished in Simferopil

Crimean Authorities Earn on Mosques?

Majority of Crimean Mosques Unregistered

48 of 1700 mosques are returned to Crimean Muslims

There is a problem of returning the Muslims’ religious buildings in Crimea

Seventh Day Adventists settle in mosque of XVII century

Crimean Moslems are not enabled to restore Selim Mosque in Theodosia

28/12/2009

Rate this article: