Orientalists treat new title of Chechen Mufti as formal

Chechen Mufti Salakh Mezhiev got in Jordan not the title of academician, but symbolic membership in the Institute for Islamic Thought, which does not provide any advantage in the Muslim world, note Arabists and Caucasian scholars.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on October 11, Ramzan Kadyrov congratulated Chechen Mufti Salakh Mezhiev, whom Abdullah II of Jordan declared a member of the Royal Jordanian Academy of the descendants of the Prophet Muhammad. Salakh Mezhiev has not even got a higher spiritual education, users of social networks note.

An Arab journalist working in Moscow states it is not correct to call the Royal Aal al-Bayt (the family of the prophet) Institute for Islamic Thought an academy. According to the journalist, the Mufti of Chechnya "was simply assigned some kind of honorary title."

The admission of the Mufti of Chechnya to the Jordanian institute does not mean anything, since it is one of many similar organizations in the Islamic world, believes orientalist Alexei Malashenko.

According to him, the Salakh Mezhiev's new title cannot strengthen anyone's position in the Russian Muslim community, since "not many Muslims or scholars in the Islamic world know about that institution."