Against a backdrop of predictably gloomy «single election day» news, two events have occurred in recent days that have delighted many Muslims. The first is Habib Nurmagomedov’s victory over Dustin Poirier. Of course, we are only talking about the perception of this event by the broad Muslim masses and not giving an assessment from Islamic positions. From these positions, it is clear that the industry of injury for public entertainment, which pushes millions of growing Muslims towards the path of new gladiators, is something that needs to be changed. However, if we develop this analogy further, the realities faced by Muslims today, whose own armies have suffered or are suffering defeats in various directions, are such that all they have left is to rejoice in the victories of their gladiators, even if it is only something. It is better than nothing, but only on one condition — to perceive this situation not as something that is due, but as something that needs to be changed, and to see these victories of their «gladiators» as a symbol that Muslims can win.
The second news against this backdrop, although it went largely unnoticed in the Muslim community, showed that Muslims can win in a much more important field than combat. We are talking about the victory of Magomed Yandiyev, an Ingush, in the elections to the regional assembly, not in Ingushetia, but in the most central 45th district of Moscow, where he defeated not just anyone, but a prominent representative of the pro-government establishment, Valeria Kasamara from the Higher School of Economics. The latter has already rushed to claim that Yandiyev won thanks to the support of the Muslim diaspora, to which Alexei Navalny, who supported him, responded with a corresponding caricature.
But jokes aside, what is important here is not just that an Ingush won, but which specific Ingush it is. An associate professor at Moscow State University, a professor at Plekhanov University, the author of about 150 scientific publications, including more than 10 in English, and the creator of a number of scientific models.
The same criticism is often directed at Habib, accusing him of lowering the intellectual level of Muslim youth and inspiring them to use their heads not for thinking but for smashing things. But here we have a person who has achieved success with his mind and can serve as an example of how to use it and what Muslim youth should aspire to.
In this case, however, it can also be said that Yandiyev is a «legionnaire» just like Habib, though not in sports, but in politics. He came from the A Just Russia party and was helped to get elected by Navalny in spite of the United Russia party. This would be fair, of course, but, as in the case of Habib, only if we accept such a situation as something that is due — that talented Muslims should be satisfied with victories in other people’s games.
However, there is a certain regularity known as the transition from quantity to quality and vice versa. In this case, it means that the more successful Muslims there are in prominent and socially significant positions, the sooner the Muslim community as a whole will be able to transform its marginal position into a leading one.