Muslims in Udmurtia: the present state and ways of maintaining their confessional identity

Abstract

The present article is an attempt to evaluate the Islamic communities of Udmurtia in the broad context of current cultural, religious and social developments. The research is rather urgent: often the so-called “Islamic issues” are far from being positively referred to in the current media . This inadvertently contributes to the shaping in the public notion of an “Islamic Wahhabi terrorist” stereotype, which is then being automatically applied to everybody who worships in the mosque or clad in “Islamic” clothes. This incorrect perception of Muslims cannot be rectified or even improved by the existence of over 20 Islamic cultural organizations, which nowadays operate in Udrmurtia. The research methods include the analysis of various statistical data as well as collecting and the subsequent analysis of information regarding the activity of various Muslim communities as officially published in the on-line media. The result of the analysis can be summarized as follows: the cooperation between various Islamic cultural organizations and other national and cultural institutions can help to integrate newcomers in the already established religious structures. It has to be also stressed that the Islamic organizations have a significant potential to maintain the historical and cultural balance, which helps to build up connections between siloed organizations and individuals on one hand side and to stop the spreading the xenophobic and extremist ideas on the other. The avenues include among others a dialogue between Islamic communities and State organizations as well as pedagogical, parental and other groups, which aim to address wide circles of the local population.