Discussions about indigenous, national and transnational Islam in Russia

Abstract

Transnational Islam is increasingly presented in the Russian political rhetoric as a security threat. Therefore, Russian politicians and authorities attempt to support indigenous or national forms of Islam. Similar policies are implemented in several western European countries. Yet they tend to disregard the heterogeneity of the Muslim community, they create exclusions and they are often conceived as imposing outside evaluations and interpretations on Islam. This contribution analyses initiatives intended to develop a national Islam in post-Soviet Russia. While the aims, methods and problems in different countries are often quite similar, the values and norms underlying these initiatives vary and reflect the societies from which they emerge. This contribution argues that since the 1990s, the changes in the political line of the Kremlin have impacted the project for a 'national' Islam by placing less emphasis on liberal values and more emphasis on adherence to loyalism and political conservatism.

Introduction: Normative orders and the remaking of Muslim spaces and selves in contemporary Russia

“…The study of Islam in Russia is confronted with normative dichotomies that have been established on an official level, in particular that between ‘traditional Islam’, understood as a ‘local Islam’, and ‘non-traditional Islam’, perceived as a ‘foreign Islam’. The existence of these normative discourses on Islam can be brought in relation to state attempts to domesticate and govern Islam from above in European countries (Aitamurto, 2019; Bowen, 2004; Braginskaia, 2012; Di Puppo, 2019; Humphrey, 2009; Sunier, 2014). In contrast to European attempts to create a national Muslim clergy, however, the presence of official Muslim representation has a significant legacy in Russia that traces back to Catherine the Great.…”

Between the spaces: Experts on Islam in Russia

“…The growing presence of Muslims in Europe and in the United States is accompanied by the construction of Islam as the object of expertise (Marzouki, 2011). In Russia, these processes are accompanied by the domestication of Islam where the latter is considered an object of governance (Aitamurto, 2019; Braginskaia, 2012). In many cases, the expertise of Islam is directly related to the question of secularity, as in the hijab debate in France in 2005 (Marzouki, 2011) or to security issues (Stampnitzky, 2001).…”

“…In many cases, the expertise of Islam is directly related to the question of secularity, as in the hijab debate in France in 2005 (Marzouki, 2011) or to security issues (Stampnitzky, 2001). If we continue the question put by Kaarina Aitamurto (2019: 209) on ‘who has the right to speak for the community’ to define ‘national Islam’, we will modify it this way: Who has the right to justify the existence of ‘national Islam’ outside the community? How does this external intervention deal with the distinction of the religious and the secular space?…”