Muslim Ukraine became the topic of the edition of "Ukrainskiy Tyzhden" for 07.08.2009. As a result of the joint project of the weekly journal and the Center of Middle-EasternRresearches of the Institute of Religious Studies of the NASU appeared a number of articles devoted to history, culture and the present of Muslims in Ukraine. The edition tells about historical presence of Islam on the spaces of our state, acquaints with rich Muslim heritage what especially differentiates this issue against other publications of often negative, and even frankly Islamophobic content, calls to mutual respect and understanding.
To see the Muslim world exclusively through a prism of September, 11th, is arrogance and levity. That modern (and furthermore, historical) Islam has many faces, know everyone who studied it at least a little, writes a weekly journal "Ukrainskiy Tyzhden".
In Ukraine "there is no occasion for that anti-Islamic psychosis which for partially clear reasons seized the Western Europe, after all we face... mainly our brothers with whom we were connected by history and destiny. And... it concerns not only the Crimean Tatars", we read on the pages of "Tyzhden".
Islam was brought to our spaces by southern neighbors of Ukraine - the Crimean Tatars. When soldiers of the Golden Horde in the ХІІІth century conquered the East, many of them converted to Islam. Separate representatives of the people which settled in Crimea and mixed up with local population, also gradually became Muslims.
In more details about geography of appearing and distribution of Muslims on the Ukrainian lands we learn from the map given on a turn.
Except for Crimea known to general public as "the cradle of Islam in Ukraine", Muslims are present in the west and the east of the state, too. So the Lithuanian Tatars, descendants of the soldiers who came to service to the Lithuanian princes in the end of the XIVth century from the Golden Horde, including lineal descendants of the Khan Mamai, became carriers of belief in Allah in Galichina.
The minaret testifies to presence of Muslims on the territory of Podolia, "leant against the cathedral of Peter and Paul in Kamentes-Podolsk". It is possibly the most known Muslim construction outside of Crimea.
In the east of Ukraine, on the territories of modern Donbass, the Muslim population formed out of the Volga Tatars who started to lodge here in the end of the XIXth - in the beginning of the XXth centuries during industrial development of a practically non-settled region.
In the cities of Ukraine, particularly in Kiev, Kharkov, Lugansk, Donetsk, Dnepropetrovsk and Odessa, Islam appeared due to migrants from sister republics of the former Soviet Union, mainly Azerbaijani, who moved here during the conflict in Nagorniy Karabah in the early nineties.
Among representatives of other Muslim people in the country there are appreciable Diasporas from Palestine, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
It is necessary to note contribution of these publications to intercultural and interreligious dialogue in Ukraine. "All people once lived by a principle "ours-theirs", another did not exist. It's time to realize, "them" are "us" too. We are united by common past, we are, in particular, and our historical neighbors, our former enemies.... We had time to borrow something from them, and they from us.... All of us are compatriots and we are responsible for each other", with such words "Tizhden" addresses the Ukrainian reader.
In the course of excursions to a cathedral of Peter and Paul in Kamenets-Podolsk, local guides often tell that Turks persistently profaned Christian temples in the grasped city. Actually "the Ottoman Turks fulfilled allied duties concerning the dwarfish state of Doroshenko and did not touch Orthodox people and its relics", is marked in a weekly journal.
The Islamic culture of Ukraine usually associates with the Crimean mosques. But Muslim monuments are not only mosques, and they can be found not only in Crimea, the author of the article about Islamic heritage in Ukraine invites to travel to the historical places of Muslims.
The Mufti of Muslims of Crimea Emirali Ablaev tells about the role of religion and position of the Crimean Muslims in the modern Ukrainian state in his interview to the weekly journal. He "would like the Ukrainian state to be such a society where nobody would condemn, would not offend each other neither on national, nor on religious ground".
To formation of such a society also contribute journalists who do not inflate an anti-Muslim hysteria, and help representatives of different religions to get acquainted with each other, call for respectful relations and cooperation for the sake of peace and well-being of our common Motherland. Hopefully this issue of the Ukrainian edition will become a good example for imitation.
Related Links:
Numerous Geographical Names in Ukraine Testify to Long Arabian Presence
Islam in Ukraine: Basic Stages of History
