How Children Learn About Islam in Post-Soviet Tatarstan: State and Non-state Actors in the Construction of Civil and Religious Identity

Abstract

This chapter addresses the problem of children’s instruction on Islam in the Republic of Tatarstan. The research is based on fieldwork in several rural districts and six cities carried out in June and July 2017, as well as on the analysis of curricula, textbooks, and publications on religious educational reforms. The study shows that the main factor in how religion is taught in public schools is the multi-ethnic and multi-religious composition of the local population (54 and 44 percent of Tatar and Russian populations respectively). Religion is taught in Russian public schools in the form of secular courses. Confessional religious instruction is possible only outside of the state education system. The case of Islam shows the diversity of forms of children’s religious education: religion is taught in Muslim kindergartens, in special courses that operate near mosques, in summer camps, discussions and meetings with imams and Islamic clergy at schools, and in Uthmaniya, the private, general-education school founded in Kazan by the Tatarstan Muslim Religious Board.