Vladimir Putin Believes That Traditional Islam Can Be Used to Fight Wahabi-Style Muslim Terror
In Kazan, Vladimir Putin met with the muftis of centralized Muslim organizations of Russia. The President highlighted their international activities. According to the head of state, the experience of educational work, which they conduct in Russia, is useful to other countries.
Vladimir Putin: "It's not accidental that other countries ask for your help in educational work. However, the difference between us and these countries is that for our Muslim Ummah, our Russian Islam community, Russia is home. Russia is our common motherland. And the countries you're talking about, accept Islam representatives as immigrants. They're either immigrants or their children. And often these inner protests are related to the fact that people feel discriminated. However, our young people also have many problems and ideas. But there's only one way to fight those destructive ideas. Using other ideas".
The President also thinks that it's important to revive Islamic theological education in Russia. At the same time, specialists should be prepared using our own national knowledge.
Vladimir Putin: "Traditional Islam is, unquestionably, a vital element of the Russia’s cultural code and Muslim Ummah is unquestionably a vital part of the multinational Russian people. Back then, we spoke about the need to revive the system of Islamic theological education in Russia. Islamic education has always been very deep and has a long history. We've said today that before the 1917 revolution, Muslim theologians from Russia and their opinions were highly respected around the world. It's true that much of this heritage, if not all of it, was lost or watered down during the Soviet period, and we need to create a new theological school now".