Mintimer Shaimiev meets with Sheikh Muhammad Abu al-Fath al- Bayanouni

On May 21, Tatarstan State Counsellor Mintimer Shaimiev met with Sheikh Muhammad Abu al-Fath al-Bayanouni from Syria.

To the point, Muhammad Abu al-Fath al-Bayanouni is one of the outstanding religious figures of the Islamic world, famous representative of Hanafi School of Theology from Syria, author of a number of works on Islamic law and call. Currently, he is a lecturer of the Faculty of Islamic law and Islamic Studies at the Al-Kuwait University. Before the Syrian crisis, he had given lessons at the University of Damascus.

At the beginning of the meeting, Mintimer Shaimiev congratulated everybody on the Day of Official Adoption of Islam by Volga Bulgaria. He told the guest about the history of adoption of Islam in Bolgar, current development of Islam in Tatarstan and the activities of the Regional Fund “Revival”.

Muhammad Abu al-Fath al-Bayanouni noted that he knows about the project of revival of Muslim sanctuary and efforts of Tatarstan citizens to make Bolgar the center of attraction of Russian Muslims and traditional Islam training. He became interested in the activity of Imam refresher training center that is being established at Ak mechet (White Mosque) complex and expressed his will to teach at the center.

Rector of Russian Islamic University Rafik Mukhametshin, who took part in the meeting, noted that the process of establishing Muslim education system is underway in the republic and a lack of qualified and experience specialists, who could not only teach, but become authority for younger generation of religious figures, is one of the problems. We do need teachers recognized by the Muslim world for this purpose, he said.

Issues of further development of Islamic education in the republic were also discussed at the meeting.