CHALLENGES TO OPEN SOCIETY IN TATARSTAN, A MUSLIM REPUBLIC OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION

Problem statement

This project addresses the rise of radical Islam in the Muslim republics of the Russian Federation. Politicization of Islam has a potential to destabilize the situation in and hinder the modernization of Russia’s Muslim republics.  The situation in Tatarstan is stable at the moment, much more so than in many other Russian autonomies such as, for instance, Dagestan.  Tatars are the most advanced Muslim group in Russia in terms of modernization, which as early as a hundred years ago has put them in a unique position in the Islamic world as pioneers of the Islamic modernization and educators of some other Muslim peoples of the Russian Empire.  In the post-Soviet context, however, several obstacles hinder the regeneration of this tradition.  In the period of Soviet atheism, most people grew not very religious, the matters of religion became the domain of the older and less educated people, and the reformist Tatar tradition (Jadidism) faded away.  Post-Soviet religious renaissance has led to emergence of diverse views on what the true Islam is or should be.  Even as some Tatar leaders nowadays are striving to resuscitate the reformist version of Islam and make the religion compatible with the Western civilization, the bulk of the population remains not particularly religious whereas zealots oftentimes adopt more conservative versions of Islam.  My research, while focused on Tatarstan, can provide useful insight into the general state of Islam in Russia’s ethnic republics.

Preliminary hypotheses

Radicalization of Islam in post-Soviet Tatarstan is driven by the anomie resulting from the painful social transformation, by penetration of radical ideas and ideologues from the Middle East, by competition between the local clerics for power and money, and by heavy-handed policies of the republic’s government with respect to all imams who are considered too independent of the government. 

Research design and schedule

I propose to conduct interviews with students and teachers in religious schools, as well as with representatives of the republic’s government and cultural elite. I also propose to conduct an analysis of local press. I am going to employ research assistants I have worked with on my other projects in Tatarstan and their interviewers who are fluent in Tatar language. I will analyze the collected data using the tools of grounded theory. The following table summarizes my planned activities.

Task

Month

First meeting in Kazan with research assistants; selection of media outlets for analysis and agreeing on sample of interviewees

May 06

Collecting data from periodicals

May-Nov  06

Developing a protocol for interviews

May-June 06

Second trip to Kazan to launch and discuss the results of pilot interviews

July 06

Finalization of interview protocols

July 06

Collecting interviews

Aug-Nov 06

Third trip to Kazan to discuss the results of data collection

Nov 06

Data analysis and preparation of publishable materials

Nov-Dec 06

Final trip to Kazan to disseminate my research results

April 07

 
Application of potential findings

My primary target audience is the expert and policy-making community of Tatarstan. I plan to disseminate the results of my research mostly through a series of private interviews. I will also present a report on a conference in Kazan.  Additionally, I am planning to present a policy paper on a conference at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC.  In Tatarstan, I hope to influence the current policy toward a reconciliation between the government and (at least some) alienated imams.  Internationally, I would like to raise awareness of these problems in the expert community.

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©2006   Eduard Ponarin