Jemal Heydar is a well-known public figure who promotes Islamic practices in Russia. He is one of the leaders of the currently popular organization called “Russian Islamic Heritage”. He was the founder of the Left Front coordination council and its active participant.
Heydar Cemal: an early biography
Heydar Dzhahidovich Dzhemal was born in the capital of Russia Moscow on November 6, 1947. His father was Jahim Jemal, and his mother was Irina Shapovalova. The family was international, as the head of the family was a purebred Azerbaijani, and his wife was Russian (though with Caucasian roots).
A huge contribution to the education of Heydar was made by his grandfather, who took the boy to him after his parents divorced. It was he who instilled in him a love of philosophy and Islam, which in the future will determine what Jemal Heydar will become.
After graduating from school, Dzhemal enters one of the most respected universities in Moscow at that time - the Institute of Oriental Languages at the Moscow State University. But unfortunately, his studies there did not last long, since in the second year he was expelled for an unacceptable ideology. Therefore, at the end of 1966, Cemal Heydar got a job as a proofreader in the publishing house of the journal "Medicine". There he makes new acquaintances, thanks to which he falls into a circle on Yuzhinsky (a well-known reading club that practiced occult sciences).
Islamic world
New acquaintances from the esoteric club helped to finally shape Heydar’s worldview. Thanks to this, by the end of the 70s he was very close to well-known Islamic public figures. Such communication led to the fact that soon Cemal Heydar himself began to actively promote Muslim foundations in the USSR.
Because of this behavior, he was registered with the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs until 1989. Moreover, schizophrenia and disability of the second group were attributed to him. But with the advent of perestroika, its precarious position has changed.
So, in 1990, he creates a new Islamic rebirth party in Astrakhan. And in 1991, he began to print his own newspaper Al-Wahdat.
In 1993, he founded the All-Russian movement “Islamic Committee” and around the same period began to conduct a series of television programs dedicated to Muslim traditions.
Since 2000, he has been a staunch opponent of the current political system in Russia. It even got to the point that in 2010, Heydar signed the opposition petition "Putin must leave."
Cemal Heydar today
At the moment, Jemal is an active public figure and propagandist of Islam. He has published several books on the Muslim world, as well as many similar articles on his personal website and blog.
He also opposes any tyranny in power, which causes a certain reaction from officials. So, he has repeatedly been charged with extremism, but so far none of them has been proven in practice.