print this pageTamim Achmed Mohammed Mutakh, Head of the Spiritual Direction of the Muslims of Ukraine
He was born August 1, 1956 in Lebanon. He graduated from the Faculty of Computer Technology at the Kyiv Polytechnical Institute. He himself admits that the Soviet institution lead him, a youth who was brought up in strict conformity to Muslim traditions, to study Islam even more deeply. It was disciplines that were mandatory at that time, like scientific atheism, historical and dialectal materialism and other «isms» that spurred him on. They forced him to look for counterarguments , which built up his reason and his soul. Returning to his homeland, he studied at the Faculty of Higher Islamic Studies at Beirut University and earned a Master's Degree at Aleppo Islamic University in Syria.
Returning to Ukraine for a second time, Achmed was a graduate student at the Kyiv Polytechnical Institute as a specialist in microprocessor systems on local networks. At the same time he became to give lectures to the Muslims in Kyiv and in his free time he translated Arab theological works. In 1992 he was elected imam (head of the Muslim community) of Kyiv. A year later the Spiritual Direction of the Muslims of Ukraine was formed, and a year after that they elected Sheik Achmed as their head. With Achmed's initiative, Islamic University was created in Kyiv in 1993 to prepare Muslim spiritual leaders. He teaches fundamentals of religious instruction there, he heads an academic and research center and directs the publication of a bilingual (Arab and Russian) newspaper, Minaret.
Achmed has emphasized many times that every creature in Ukraine should thank God for the beauty of its nature and climate and feel responsible for preserving this wonderful gift. He thinks the Ukrainian nation has a sincere heart and open soul.
He constantly speaks out against fundamentalism and extremism, which he thinks deforms the essence of Islam and in no way reflects its real identity.
He is married, with three daughters and a son. He is experienced in the kitchen and not a bad cook. In his free time he likes to paint. He also sews.
Text adapted from the Ukrainian-language journal "Liudyna i Svit" ("The Human Being and the World"), February, 1998.
