Notes on Tatarstan

Notes on Tatarstan

Intro

Tatarstan (capital Kazan) is a prosperous Islamic region inside of Russia. It is one home of the Tatars, an ancient ethnic group which is also found in Crimea and other subregions of Russia. Tatarstan today is undergoing a conflict between an "official" Islam that is closely tied to Russia vs. radical Jihad and Wahaabist Islamic fundamentalism. In 2012 a pro-Russian Islamic leader was killed by fundamentalists and Tatarstan's Mufti or spiritual leader was seriously injured when his car was blown up. In the 19th century Tatarstan became a center of Jadidism, a movement that preached tolerance of other faiths and had good relations with the Russian Empire

Sort of like Russian dolls nested inside each other, Tatarstan is one of 14 federal subjects nested inside the Volga Federal District, which in turn is one of 9 Federal Districts in Russia.

So that's: Russia > 9 Federal Districts > Volga Federal District (14 federal subjects) > Tatarstan

Like Chechnya and other ethnic regions in Russia, Tatarstan tried to secede from Russia after the breakup of the USSR and achieved a semi-autonomous status with its own constitution for over a decade, establishing its own laws. However, Vladimir Putin cracked down and "recentralized" Tatarstan. Because it lies smack in the middle of Russia rather than on the outskirts like Chechnya, Tatarstan had much less hope of breaking away than did Chechnya.



Matthew Derrick gave a talk at the AAG conference in March 2014 about Islamic revivalism in Tatarstan.

He made a distinction between two strains of Islam:
-"Euro-Islam" which holds secular norms vs.
-fundamentalist threats of Wahaabism and Jihad which are viewed as imported from the outside, not part of Tatarstan's native culture.

He noted that there is a serious and violent conflict today between an "official" vs. "unofficial" Islam in Tatarstan. The "official Islam" is governed by the Spiritual Board of Muslims of Tatarstan (SBMT) which was formed by Catherine the Great and modeled on the hierarchical structure of the Russian Orthodox Church. This Spiritual Board, he said, has actually multiplied since the collapse of the USSR. At the head of the SBMT is a Mufti, the general word in Islam for a scholarly/spiritual leader.

Radical Islam raises tensions in Russia's Tatarstan - BBC
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-19179399