CONTEMPORARY CONVERSION TO ISLAM IN RUSSIA: A CRITICAL LITERATURE REVIEW
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Abstract
The article offers a critical analysis of the key publications dealing with the topic of conversion to Islam in Russia in the post-Soviet period. An overview of the articles and monographs published by Rinat Bekkin, Rais Suleimanov, Izabela Kończak, Gulnaz Sibgatullina and others demonstrates the following trends in the coverage of this issue in contemporary literature. First of all, despite its prominence in the public discourse and the acuteness of discussions around post-Soviet Russian identity, conversion to Islam in Russia remains understudied because there are no significant field studies, qualitative or quantitative, that would present homogeneous data on the social profile of the new Russian Muslims. The second important feature of this segment of current research is close attention to the processes of radicalization of the newly converted and the construction of this socio-religious group’s image as a direct threat to national security. Focusing on individual cases of joining radical Islamic movements by Russian converts and their participation in terrorist activity, some researchers project such manifestations on the whole ethnic Russian Muslim community. In this respect, in contrast to “traditional Muslims”, the new Russian Muslims appear as a type of believers, incapable of a critical understanding of their new religious tradition and thus unavoidably susceptible to radicalization. Another striking dimension of stereotyping the newly converted Muslims in academic literature is their representation as an exclusivist, or elitist, group, sharply differentiating itself from ethnic Islam and ethnic Muslims. Based on the idea about the construction of the so-called “Russian Islam”, some researchers try to discredit Russian Muslim converts, asserting the Islamophobic essence of their discursive strategies.
How to Cite
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conversion to Islam, Islam, Muslim converts, Muslims, Russia
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