Between the spaces: Experts on Islam in Russia

Abstract

This paper discusses the question of knowledge construction on Islam in contemporary Russia through the lens of the category of space. Many everyday categories used by Muslims to characterize their identity are linked to spatial references. Starting from the idea of locality and ending in the search of traditional forms of Islam, these categories are highly politicized in the contemporary context. The aim of this paper is to explore the intermediary space between the political and the religious fields, the space of circulation between these fields in which experts on Islam are situated. Indeed, numerous academic specialists engage in expertise on Islam by creating or recycling categories, which circulate between the secular and the religious spaces. These experts have different backgrounds, different profiles and different strategies. Their impact on religious and political processes varies too. In addition, the experts of Islam have different characteristics according to the space they act in. We will compare these experts’ discourses in various regions (Moscow, Tatarstan and Dagestan) to analyse their strategies and the way in which they relate to their environment. Besides blurring the border between the secular and the religious by ensuring a permanent circulation of categories, the experts on Islam activate political and religious notions in a different manner according to their spatial affiliation. This concerns the reference to the local or international Muslim space as well as their normative discourse on acceptable forms of Islam.