‘Part of Russian colleagues, encountered the Western approaches in Humanities, experience a culture shock’

'My role was quite humble'

Why was Sweden chosen as the site for the event?

The conference was organized by the Research Centre for Russia and Eurasia at the University of Uppsala. My role was pretty humble. Two years ago we met in Uppsala with Greg Simons (Professor, Doctor of Uppsala University, specialist in the analysis of media – editor's note) at the beginning of my research project. He told me that he was planning to organize such conference. But time passed, a conference did not take place. I am a man of persistent and from time to time reminded Greg about the conference. This spring Greg took the time and applied for funding. Then he asked me to send a list of those who I would recommend for participation in the conference. From that list, more than half of people participated. It is about 20% of the total number of participants. At the conference, I moderated the section 'Islam in the history and culture of Russia'.

How long did the event last? What interesting discussions were there?

Three days. But, I guess, it would be possible to hold in two, to leave a day for cultural programme. At least, we did that way when we held a forum 'Islam in multicultural world' in Kazan. Most of all I liked the reports that were made in the first and second days of the conference. To be honest, it was not always clear to the professional Orientalists, experts on Islam, what political scientists, sociologists and experts in media, that came from Russia, wanted to tell about Islam. Sometimes it was simply a set of myths and clichés borrowed from the Internet.

To be honest, it was not always clear to the professional Orientalists, experts on Islam, what political scientists, sociologists and experts in media, that came from Russia, wanted to tell about Islam

A shadow of Rais

Is it a coincidence that the forum was held simultaneously with the conference in Istanbul, which was attended by the so-called 'official' Muslim leaders — the Muftis (Tadzhuddin, Gainutdin, Samigullin, etc.)?

I think, a coincidence. Dates of the conference were defined in the late spring, and hardly anyone of the Swedes were aware about the upcoming event in Istanbul.

What 'camps' were represented there? For example, RISS experts, political refugees, pro-government, opposition, 'traditional' and 'non-traditional' and others?

I don't like to divide people into camps. It was a scientific conference. Therefore, those who were there can be divided into those who were aware of the subject and those who were not. However, I'll note that this was the intention of the organizers of the conference: to gather in one place representatives of different scientific disciplines — from Islamists to experts in media. In this sense, the expectations of the organizers, perhaps, have justified. And the conference was called so that there could be different specialists.

Why did they talk about Rais Suleimanov, but he himself was not there, and his 'camp' was represented by Galina Khizriyeva?

Suleimanov, as far as I know, was invited. Why he didn't come, I don't know. Roman Silantyev and Damir Mukhetdinov were also in the initial list. But neither of them came. It is a pity. It would be interesting. As for Galina Khizrieva, she was not involved in active discussion and was not present, for example, during the speech of a Russian Muslim-political refugee Chernomorchenko. Why on the day of opponent's speech she decided to stroll through the quiet streets of Uppsala, I do not know. A special report was devoted to Suleimanov. It was an uncritical compilation of his statements. For all 15 minutes of the report, Rais Suleymanov was looking at the participants from a slide. Not everyone can withstand such test. Some of the participants at the end lost their nerves. So, Suleymanov was present at the conference, his spirit hovered over the participants.

A special report was devoted to Suleimanov. It was an uncritical compilation of his statements. For all 15 minutes of the report, Rais Suleymanov was looking at the participants from a slide

Interdisciplinary science

Is it true that there are serious differences in scientific approach to Islamic studies among Russian and Western scholars, according to your colleague Azat Akhunov?

This is a very important topic and it can not be elaborated in an interview. A separate article should be devoted to it. Part of our colleagues from Russia, encountered the dominant Western approaches to the Humanities, experience something like a culture shock. Such shock happened, apparently, to Azat Akhunov. Russian scientists are accustomed to the classical positivism, but in the West, positivism has become a kind of curse. It is enough to compare articles from peer-reviewed European journals and articles in Russian journals, especially in the regions. I am a lawyer by training and, therefore, a complete positivist. The law is almost an exact science, it is impossible to conceal your ignorance of the subject behind the beautiful words borrowed from English and written in Cyrillic. But this does not mean that I do not recognize the right to existence of other approaches. I think the truth is somewhere in the middle between bare positivism, when the thesis on history, for example, represents the set of dates and names, and overloaded with the methodological twists of Humanities in the West, when only a few dozen people, working in the same field, are able to read some scientific works and understand them.

It was the first experience. Hopefully, not the last. I hope the organizers are satisfied with the results of the conference

Another important point is a so-called interdisciplinarity. Most of the research in our days overcome the scope of one discipline. But interdisciplinarity is a skilled weapon only in the hands of a professional. It's one thing when this interdisciplinarity is used by scientists, like Misha Kemper, or Volodya Bobrovnikov, who knows by the original sources what Islam is. It's quite another thing when the words about interdisciplinarity are heard from the mouth of a scientist or a sociologist, who have in their arsenal only a set of methods, but do not have the appropriate professional training. In studying Islam, interdisciplinarity will benefit the professional Islamic scholars. But it will bring harm to the people who unprepared: scientists, professionals, media and others. For example, at the conference, which we are talking about now, there have been participants that made presentations on Islam, but when they were asked the essence, they just shrugged and said: 'I'm not a scholar, I have an interdisciplinary research'. However, it does not concern all Islamic scholars. There are brilliant research involving Islamic issues and are done by scientists who are not Islamic scholars. It is felt that they have been consulted by professionals.