The Overview of the Muslim Ideological Movements in the Volga-Ural Region (the 20th and 21st centuries)

Abstract

The article is devoted to researching the ideological processes among the Volga-Ural Muslims in the context of the contemporary Islamic World. Chronologically the research covers two periods crucial for the Volga-Ural Muslim community: that of the reformist movement at the beginning of the 20th century, and the new discourse formation stage during the Post-Soviet period at the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st centuries (so called Islamic Renaissance). The gap period of 70 years characterized by the atheistic propaganda in the Soviet Union eliminating development of any Islamic institutions significant for shaping religious ideology has been excluded from this research. The study provides some concise characteristics of the basic Islamic ideologies such as Traditionalism, Islamic Reformism, Islamism, etc. Their concrete realization in the intellectual structures of the Volga-Ural Muslims is discussed as well. The article expounds the sources of the ideological constructs, enumerates the main factors and religious institutions representing them, and investigates the goals and central religious beliefs of various groups as well as the spheres of influence of each group. It is stated that the main trends in the development of the Islamic community in the Volga-Ural region are similar to those worldwide. While at the beginning of the 20th century the most influential group to oppose official Traditionalism was Reformist Modernism, by the beginning of the 21st century it was Fundamentalism (be it its softer or harder forms) that gains sympathy of the majority of believers. Sometimes the popularity of various Islamic trends is in part inversely proportional to the state’s religious policy: the more a state supports one trend, the less popular it becomes with the population, and vice versa. The author suggests accepting a more differentiated approach towards religious dissidents, supporting various groups, and providing platforms for expressing the spectrum of opinions to the movements operating within the legal boundaries of the Russian law.