The Same Prophets?

"Radik Amirov heads a press club called The East, which offers media resources related to what he terms “the internal and external Muslim world,” both in Russia and beyond. This is part of what he thinks Muslims must do—more work to offer their own self-representation on the Internet, radio, and TV. Part of the story that needs to be told, Radik thinks, is the long, proud history of Muslims living in peace with Christians and Jews in Russia, and fighting together against Napoleon and the Nazis. “There were no religious wars throughout this time.” Amirov sees himself as representative of the mainstream Muslim population here. “We are normal,” he laughs, again echoing Said Bitsoev. “Most Muslims are like me. There are lots of journalists and politicians and people of culture and postmen among Muslims.” Asserting that he represents the majority with his open views on religion and coexistence, he still argues that, as a population, “We must work on ourselves and avoid the fundamentalist mentality.” It is wonderful to hear someone both speaking positively about his community and also accepting its responsibility. He recently edited L’chaim Tatars, a book of true stories about what he argues are historically congenial relations between Muslims and Jews in his native Tatarstan and in other parts of the former Soviet Union. The cover of the small, hardback volume he gifts me is decorated with a crescent and a Star of David. “We have the same Prophets, the same values, rules and traditions,” ...

Yet another chapter memorializes good things Jews and Muslims have done for one another. It tells the story of a Jewish doctor who cured a Muslim boy, and then his parents saved Jewish boys during World War II. The Muslim boy in question, Abu-Bekir Shabanovich, grew up to become mufti of Belarus. For Radik, this history stands in stark contrast to today’s “war of civilizations.”

(Radik Amirov, who is president of Russia’s League of Muslim Journalists when I meet him in 2010, and press secretary to Moscow mufti Ravil Gainutdin)

- Karima Bennoune. Your Fatwa Does Not Apply Here.