Mr. Seitjelil Ibrahimov, the Head og Crimean Muftiat of 1992-1995, died in Kazan at the age of 53 after an extended illness. Many Ukrainian Muslims grieve for this loss.
Seitjelil-Hajji Ibrahimov got his theological education in the Madrasah of Bukhara (Uzbekistan); later he worked as a qady of Crimea and as Imaam at Simferopol mosque. Thus, he worked at ground zero of reviving Islam in Crimea during the hard times of 1990ies when the Crimean Tatar mass repatriation started.
Crimea still has good memory of Mr. Ibrahimov. The first Mufti made a valuable input in reviving Islam at the peninsula, as the number of muslim communities grew essentially while he performed the duties of the Mufti, and reached the mark of 50.
Besides, he was one of the first people to start interfaith dialogue in Crimea. It was him to become, along with the Archbishop of Simferopol and Crimea Lazarus, the co-chairman of the Interfaith Council “Peace is the Gift of God”, initiated in November 1992 in order to “...consolidate interfaith dialogue in Crimea”.
From the beginning of his work at this field (which was in 1992), Mr. Ibrahimov took active part in international Muslim forums and met with theologists and religious figures. He spent his last years as a teacher in Kazan (Russia).
