Islam of the Volga Tatars versus islamophobic stereotypes of the central Europeans: a historical excursion into the northern enclaves of the religion of the crescent that "has already belonged to Europe" for twelve centuries

Vol.16,No.1(2018)

Jan Reichstäter

Stable URL (handle):
http://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/138437

PDF (Czech)
Abstract
Among the inhabitants of the post-Communist Central European countries – with the smallest Muslim minorities of the whole continent – Islam is currently presented through negative stereotypes as a religion essentially "non-European," "expansive," and "intolerant". Both the history and present-day reality of Tatar Islam represent one of the notable examples which might break such prejudices or generalizations. Islam appeared in the Volga-Ural region earlier than Christianity. Its historical spread within Tatar khanates seems to lack violent conversions, unlike during later expansion of Christian Russians into the region. And also, traditional Islamic areas of the present-day Russian Federation (i.e. Volga and Caucasus regions) served as historical refuges for the last surviving Pagan cultures of Europe. Due to relative isolation from its Middle Eastern focuses, as well as intensive contacts with native cultures around the Eurasian steppes, Tatar Islam notably differs from that of e.g. Arabian, or even North Caucasian populations. Other factors that have stimulated its specific – relatively secular and humanistic – character can be seen in the popularity of Sufism and Jadidism during the modern era, as well as the long-standing necessity to cope with various pressures from part of the hegemonic cultures of the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and the presentday post-Soviet Russian state.

Keywords:
Islam; Volga Tatars; religion in Russia; multiculturalism in Russia

Pages:
56–67
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