FOREIGN FACTOR IN THE FORMATION THE SYSTEM OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION IN POST-SOVIET TATARSTAN: PROBLEMS AND WAYS OF OVERCOMING THEM

Abstract

A problem arose with the creation of the fi rst independent religious structure in Post-Soviet Tatarstan (Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Tatarstan) and that was an urgent need to train imams and mudarrises for Tatarstan’s mosques, madrasahs and maktabs. The ties between Kazan, Bukhara and Tashkent — traditional centers for the training of Tatar imams — were destroyed after the disintegration of the USSR; as a result, the absence of religious schools necessitated a search for new approaches. Help was received from various Arab funds and patrons, mainly from the Gulf States. At their expense, hundreds of young Muslim Tatars were trained abroad. By the example of the events in the religious sphere of Tatarstan in the last twenty years, we can see the dynamics of the government’s attitude towards the problem of foreign Muslim education: from neutral and sometimes optimistic to highly negative.