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2017 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

3. Muslims of Russia Communities

Author : Simona E. Merati

Published in: Muslims in Putin's Russia

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

This chapter introduces the discourse about Islam in the North Caucasus and some positions held by non-Muslim Russians, with particular reference to visions of Russia’s place in the world and in history, and of the place of Islam in Russia. It also offers a specific discussion of the Russkie Musul’mane movement.

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previous chapter The Identity of Muslims of Russia
next chapter Russia’s Islamic Religious Institutions and the State
Footnotes
1
In the course of the 1990s, negotiations were conducted with Moscow on the status of Tatarstan. A new bilateral treaty was signed in 1994, which formally grants Tatarstan the same status as the Russian Federation and allows it to conduct its independent foreign and trade policies, among others (Slocum 1999).
 
2
See also Chapter 3 of this book.
 
3
For example, it was the Tatar merchants who initially kept the relations of Imperial Russia with its neighbors in the east and south, including nomads of Central Asia, and China.
 
4
The first historical moment in which Muslim communities of the Russian Empire had the opportunity to come together for a joint purpose was probably at the beginning of the twentieth century. Muslims became politically active, joining different political movements, including the Kadets and the Communists, organized conferences, and elaborated their political programs. However, also on those occasions the rivalries among the communities persisted. The Tatars, who were politically more advanced and had better relations with the authorities, ascribed to themselves a leading role, which was resented by the other groups, who often followed alternative models.
 
5
See Chapter 4.
 
6
Very influential Islamic modernist movement developed among Muslims (especially Tatars) of Russian Imperial Turkestan in the second half of the nineteenth century. For more details, see Chapter 2.
 
7
The argument that Islamic practices acquire different traits through their combination with local habits, is acknowledged by many Muslim communities and scholars of Islam (Bulliet 1993), but not universally accepted. For example, like in Russia, also in Indonesia the local forms of Islam are harshly contested by supporters of newly imported, Saudi-inspired “correct” Islam. I thank Asfa Widiyanto for bringing this similarity to my attention.
 
8
A prolific author and a respected observer of the Caucasus, Aliev, died in 2012.
 
9
This observation seems intended to reject the perceptions stemming from the Soviet-time reading of Sufism in the Caucasus as a political oppositional force.
 
10
The role of Vladimir Putin in selecting and encouraging specific religious policies is discussed in the next chapter.
 
11
Although the same politician who had introduced the concept of traditional Islam, Evgenii Primakov, had also distinguished between Islamic fundamentalism and extremism, such differentiation had gone lost in the general fear of “Wahhabism”.
 
12
A more detailed discussion of the effects of the Grozny fatwa on institutional dynamics is offered in Chapter 4.
 
13
An extensive discussion of Primakov’s doctrine and of its implications is conducted in Chapter 5.
 
14
The same observation about Basaev has been made by Gaidar Dzhemal’ from the prospective of political Islam (see Chapter 6).
 
15
The literature on the condition of the Muslim communities under the tsarist regime is blooming, in Russia and outside of it, by both Muslims and non-Muslims. Usually, the main purpose is historical – to reengage with abandoned pre-Soviet studies and to expose the faults of Soviet historiography. However, often, there is also the attempt to search for sociopolitical arrangements that could be (re)introduced today.
 
17
The Report has been published by the Committee for the civic initiatives (Komitet grazhdanskikh initsiativ), funded in 2012 by Aleksey Kudrin. The former Russian Minister of Economy, who had successfully served for many years during the Putin’s presidency, Kudrin is thought to be a liberal moderate, a capable economist, and certainly not an open opponent to the government.
 
18
A particular category of ultranationalists, instead, expresses positions that are close to certain Islamic thinkers. These most interesting affinities are discussed in Chapters 6 and 7.
 
19
Dzhemal’s thought is examined in detail in Chapter 6.
 
20
Hence, coming from an “ethnic Muslim”, albeit already secularized, family.
 
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Metadata
Title
Muslims of Russia Communities
Author
Simona E. Merati
Copyright Year
2017
Book
Muslims in Putin's Russia

Print ISBN: 978-3-319-53519-7

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-319-53520-3

Copyright Year: 2017

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53520-3_3

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