Islamic education in Chechnya: historical, political, spiritual and cultural factors of formation

Abstract

Islamic education in Chechnya has its own historical-political and spiritual-cultural factors of formation, dating back to the period of the adoption of Islam by the Chechens, associated with the socio-political structure of their society, beliefs, Arab conquests, the construction of mosques, during which primary Muslim schools were always created, also madrasah secondary schools. These schools existed in the North Caucasus, the Volga region, and Central Asia; they had a Kadimist (or Bukhara) system of training children. At the dawn of Soviet power, all Islamic educational institutions, with rare exceptions located in Uzbekistan, were liquidated for political reasons. Islamic education in the USSR was generally interrupted as a phenomenon alien to progressive Soviet society. Religious education, including Islamic, in the post-Soviet period in Russia and its regions, is being revived, acquiring a new status and receiving tangible development. The purpose of the article is to consider the experience of the development of Islamic education in Chechnya, including modern ones, in the context of the tasks of strengthening the state unity and integrity of the Russian Federation, preserving the ethnocultural identity of its peoples, ensuring the constitutional rights and freedoms of citizens, harmonizing public and state interests. It is concluded that the modernization of Islamic education carried out in the Chechen Republic is becoming a significant factor in the religious and national security of the region and Russia as a whole. A unified and viable system of continuous Islamic education and science has been created in the republic, represented by three levels of spiritual education.