“Round table”, dedicated to the 220th anniversary of Russian Mufti Council, has taken place in Ufa

The “round table” to the topic “Ufa is the capital of Russian Islam since Catherine the II and till nowadays” has taken place in the Central Clerical Muslim Dept RB today on the eve of the remarkable date – on December 4 it will be the 220th anniversary of establishment of the II Orenburg Muslim Clerical Dept by the decree of the Empress Catherine the Second. Fr om that moment Ufa was officially admitted the spiritual and cultural center of Russian Muslims. Chairman of the Central Clerical Muslim Dept, the Supreme Russian Mufti Talgat Tadjuddin, the deputy head of Bashkir President Administration informational-analytical department Daniel Azamatov, the chairman of the Religious Affairs Council under Government RB Vyacheslaw Pyatkov and the delegation of the magazine “RODINA”, having arrived in Bashkortostan in order to prepare the special edition of the magazine, devoted to Bashkortostan, took part in the conference.

“The main goal we set today is assistance to integration of all Muslim religious organizations” – Talgat Tadjuddin said before the beginning of the conference – “We consider the service for spiritual and moral revival of the country our common duty but for that we have to unite all religious centers in the country. The recent integration of the Russian Christian Church and the Russian Foreign Christian Church can become the positive model and today we set the task to unite all Muslim organizations on the territory of Russia, so we urge all our coreligionists to unite and we do hope our call will be heard”.

At present time 12,5% of Russian population practice Islam, including representatives of more than 30 nations. Russian Muslims make the inseparable part of Russian society and the share of Muslims in political, spiritual and economical life of the country grows up.

“Ufa lies on the geographical crossroads between Europe and Asia. It was once chosen the center of Muslim spiritual life in Russia and admitted “Mecca” of Russian Muslim spiritual values” – Talgat Tadjuddin said – “Today we want to urge all representatives of modern Muslim clergy in Russia to take the baton of our fathers and to start developing the heritage, sent to us by the Almighty. We urge our coreligionists to listen to the common sense and to refuse from everything, entailing disconnection in our society”.

“Russian Federation is an inseparable part of the Muslim civilization and the country, inhabited by millions of Muslims” – Vyacheslaw Pyatkov said – “Since the 18 century the city of Ufa is officially admitted the Muslim capital of Russian Federation and here the Central Clerical Muslim Dept RF is located. Bashkortostan is the unique Russian region, wh ere representatives of more than 130 nationalities live side by side. There are 1363 different religious communities in our Republic and seven religious centers, so various ethnoses and cultures live in harmony here”.

The editor of the magazine ”RODINA” religious history department Sergey Antonenko says the issue of the special number, devoted to Bashkortostan, is planned on the first half of 2010 and preparation of the materials runs already today.

“We arrived in Bashkortostan with two main goals” – Sergey Antonenko said – “First, we are collecting the materials for the special edition and, second, we arrived to express our respect to Ufa and all-Russian Muslim clergy in connection with the remarkable date – the 220th anniversary of the Russian Mufti Council establishment. As the all-Russian cultural-historical magazine we consider the coverage of his event extremely important. Today the dialogue of representatives of different religions for joint struggle with any manifestations of extremism is as necessary as never before and it is especially important in connection with the tragic events in Moscow – the murder of the Christian priest Daniel Sysoev. We think all Russians have to grasp the pain and joy of every religion as their own”.