The Russian State Promotion of Islamic Education

The paper will examine the Russian state initiatives to promote an Islamic education in Tatarstan and the North Caucasus. It will ask the question of what forms of Islam does the state promote and what is understood as “moderate Islam”.

The question of the form of Islam promoted by the Russian state highlights how certain boundaries are being drawn between a secularised, traditional and “Soviet” Islam that is represented by the Sufi branch of Islam and alternative forms of Islam such as a Salafi inspired Islam that are portrayed as being alien and not compatible with Russian secularism. References to collective memories linked to the Sufi tradition are thus emphasised in Tatarstan, even if the region also proclaims to represent a modernist trend in Islam in the form of jadidism, in order to draw a boundary with Salafi inspired movements. Furthermore, Tatarstan emphasises the connection with global efforts aimed at promoting a moderate Islam, for example in Western countries.

At the same time, such boundaries shed a new light on the way in which concepts of “modernity” and “tradition” can be associated to notions of “secularity” and “religion”. Indeed, the Russian state is perceived as supporting the traditional Sufi establishment that is described as being “non-democratic” and lacking in religious knowledge and authority by alternative Islamic movements such as the Salafis, in particular in the North Caucasus. Further, the Russian state has tended to isolate the North Caucasus from transnational networks of Islamic knowledge. The Sufi establishment, also represented in the region of Tatarstan, has been delegitimised as a religious source of authority due to its perceived cooptation with Soviet structures and with federal authorities after the end of the Soviet Union.