CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VOLUME VII (1, 2) Contemporary-Eurasia-3new | Page 67

LIANA HAYRAPETYAN
identity, not linked to ethnic traditions, and have greater interest in polit-
ical actions. They want to understand the current event in their republic
and the world, but traditionalists are not able to give agreeable answers,
while radicals are good at providing with the needed information. 24
Overall, researches in this fi eld comprehensively elaborate on the fac-
tors that contribute to the escalation of the radical trend in Tatarstan. This
research will go further and will try to understand the developments of
radicalism, what is characteristic to Tatar radicals and, what other factors
contribute to the rise of the radicalism.
Wahhabism in Tatarstan
The Spread of Wahhabism in Tatarstan
The spread of Wahhabism in Tatarstan region during the 1990s is con-
nected with the charity funds opened by Middle Eastern countries. Arab
sponsors fi nancially supported the activities of a number of Islamic edu-
cational institutions in Tatarstan, of which the most popular one was me-
drese “Yoldyz” in city Naberezhnye Chelny. Students were trained on the
basis of Salafi beliefs, and that rooted the ideology of Wahhabism among
young people. 25
After the achievement of the sovereignty of Tatarstan in 1992, it was
decided by Tatar Muslims that Spiritual Board of Muslims of the Euro-
pean part of Russia and Siberia (DUMES) should be moved to Kazan in
order to strengthen the role of the city as a spiritual center of the Tatars.
However, the idea was not endorsed by Talgat Tajutdin, the mufti of DU-
MES. 26 Therefore, Tatars created their own SBM, which started to operate
independently from DUMES and the mufti became Gabdulla Galiullin.
Many mosques did not accept the newly created SBM of Tatarstan and
continued to follow DUMES. Tajutdin created a breach of his muftiate
in Tatarstan. Hence till 1998 in Tatarstan there were two muftiates: some
mosques were following Gabdulla Galiullin, others remained loyal to Ta-
jutdin and Faid Salman, who was appointed by Tajutdin as mufti of Ta-
tarstan. Faid Salman was against the schism and separatism in the reli-
gion. He was the fi rst who noticed the spread of Wahhabism and voiced
24
25
26
Ibid.
Rais Suleymanov, ““Djamaat Bulgar”: predtsaviteli Povoljya v ryadakh Taliban,” (in Rus-
sian), [“Jamaat Bulgar” representeros of Ural in Taliban.”], The Agency of Political News.
April 16, 2018, https://www.apn.ru/index.php?newsid=37222 (accessed April 15, 2018).
Azar Khurmatullin, “Islam and Political Evaluations in Tatarstan,” Russian Islamic Univer-
sity, http://www.pol.ed.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_fi le/0008/28682/Islam_and_political_evolu-
tions_in_Tatarstan.pdf (accessed April 15, 2018).
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