Under the sponsorship of the parliament and government of the Crimean Peninsula in the south of the Ukraine, and the Federation of Social Organizations Al Raed, and with the cooperation of numerous ministries and institutions, the second international conference on the role of ethical and spiritual edification in the life of youth was held in the city of Simferopol the capital of the region on Wednesday February 24^th 2010 in the conference facilities of the Islamic Cultural Centre of the city.

The conference was attended by a number of governmental figures from the Crimea, such as the Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Omrekhnia, Yori Moraghivitch the Head of the Family and Youth Committee in the Crimean government, Tatyana Yagofa the minister of Family and Youth, Valerie Lafrove the Minister of Higher Education, and Ghinadi Maltsev the head of the Youth Crime Control Department in the Crimean Ministry of Interior. The conference was also attended by many scholars and scientist in the fields of philosophy and sociology, as well as heads and managers of universities, institutions and schools in the Crimea and other regions, and representatives from various religious and cultural organizations.

The Opening

The Deputy Prime Minister opened the conference with a speech in which she thanked Al Raed for organizing such scientific and cultural events which benefit the Ukrainian society as a whole and the society of the Crimea in particular, she also congratulated Al Raed on receiving the title of the most prominent of cultural social organizations in the Ukraine, and presented Dr.Ismail Alkady the President of the Federation with a certificate of merit of the highest order from the parliament of the region. In his speech Dr.Alkady thanked the Deputy Prime Minister for the honor, and stressed that Al Raed would remain as it has always been, intent on the issues important to the society in the Ukraine, and would always strive to participate in solving the problems and relieving the cares, he stated that he hoped the conference would aid in rescuing youth from the vices that prevail amongst many of them, and elevating their status for a brighter future.

Presenting the Current Status

The start of the conference included a presentation of social statistics pertaining to the status of youth below the age of 18 in the Ukraine in general and in Crimea specifically. The most poignant of which was presented by Ghinadi Maltsev the Head of the Youth Crime Control Department in the Crimean Ministry of Interior who showed that the rates of crime and addiction amongst youth were dangerously high when compared to those of neighboring countries, and most of them were related to a deficiency in ethics and spiritual education.

Social statistics presented by others showed that no more than 5% of the interest of youth was in the ethical and religiously spiritual side of their lives, while the remaining percentage was taken up by the materialistic concerns that prevailed in their daily lives.

In an interview with Al Raed media office, Maltsev said that they believed in the importance of cooperating with religious organizations and associations to rescue youth from their vices, especially since from experience, youth with religious inclinations had better ethics and were further removed from vice.

Lack of Religious Doctrine

A number of Muslim and Christian specialized researchers presented studies which showed that the lack of religious and moral doctrines had a negative effect on the ethical and spiritual side in society as a whole and especially amongst youth. In this context Omrekhnia told Al Raed that beyond doubt the Crimea had its own specifics that entail the development of the roles of religion and edification, since it is inhabited by many ethnic and religious groups, such as the Russians and the Ukrainians, the Christians and Jews, the Muslim Tartars, and the government of the region is very concerned with the results and recommendations of such scientific cultural events, to take into consideration in the policies of many specialized ministries.

The Rights of Muslims

The bulk of the conference focused on the rights of the Crimean Muslim Tartars (whose numbers approach approximately half a million) to teach their children their religion through specialized governmental Islamic curricula to be taught in schools and universities. This is due to the fact that Islam is their main identity and their most prominent feature in society, and because Islam encourages its followers to follow a regime of high ethics in their dealings with each-other and with others. In this context Mr.Siran Arifov the Head of Alradwan Islamic Center in the Crimea gave a lecture in which he showed how the Muslim minorities refuse the secular system because it has a negative effect on the identity of their children and leads them to a negative integration into society, leading them to give up the morals and values of their religion.

Said Ismailov the Mufti of the Religious Department for Ukrainian Muslims “Ummah” pointed out that the flourishing of Islamic civilization was integrally related to the mosques which instilled in students (specifically youth) virtues, morals and a sense of duty and responsibility. Olga Frindak the head of the Mariam Women’s Society in the capital Kiev stressed the importance of the role of the family in instilling morals and values in their children.

Dr.Ismail Alkady the President of the Federation of Social Organizations Al Raed said that they were working hard to overcome the negative consequences of the lack of formalized religious and moral educational material in educational institutions on Muslim Tartar youth and society as a whole, because this can cause the spread of moral and spiritual diseases, and hence it is a threat to the future of the country of which youth constitute the main foundation.

Recommendations

The conferences ended with recommendations put forth by the scholars, researchers and representatives of the various religious entities who participated in the event, the most prominent of which was:

1- The Ministry of Education should set religious curricula in all schools, chosen by parents to be taught to their children, whether Islamic, Christian or other.

2- Cooperating with social and religious institutions to format these curricula and develop them.

3- Facilitating the means to specialize in various religious and educational sciences

4- Supporting periodic research and studies which identify the status of youth and society and participate in gaining the knowledge of how to remedy the wrongs and vices.

5- Supporting the inter-relation of youth from various religions, through making them aware of their national responsibilities and enhancing the language of co-existence and dialogue amongst them.