CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VOLUME VII (1, 2) Contemporary-Eurasia-3new | Page 75

LIANA HAYRAPETYAN
of the “loudest” in the history of Tatarstan. There were nearly 400 wit-
nesses. All nine were accused of terror attack near “the Stone of Wishes”
in the town of Bilyar, burning a prayer house in the village of Lenino,
burning a church on November 17, 2013, launching of explosive devic-
es. 55 On March 23, 2017, all nine has been sentenced to 16 to 24 years in
prison. By 2018 16 members of the jamaat are under the arrest. Any con-
nections between the terrorist groups and members of above mentioned
social movements, with one exception, were not found.
Analysis
Based on the collected data and expert interviews it can be argued that
one of the reasons that conditions the religious stability in Tatarstan is the
existence of one united Spiritual Board of Muslims. Unlike the other re-
publics of Russia, where there are two or three muftiates, who compete
with each other, in Tatarstan there is no strong competition within the
local Muslim communities. The Spiritual Board of Muslims of the Re-
public of Tatarstan controls all the mosques and the activities of imams.
All imams are members of the spiritual administration. What imams
should say, how they should say, how they should behave, all these are
controlled by the muftiate. Thus, it is impossible to introduce any kind of
radical propaganda as it will be detected immediately.
The Spiritual Board during the times of mufti Ildus Faizov not only
had clearly defi ned goals of fi ghting radical manifestations but also had
consistently implemented them, and the July events in Tatarstan have
become the reaction of that work. Today, the Spiritual Board is active-
ly involved in propaganda of traditional Islam. And the fi ght against the
radical ideas is conducted through promotion of traditional values. The
propagation of traditional values is requested not only by the Republic of
Tatarstan but also by the Russian Federation. However, the term “tradi-
tional Islam” remains a debatable issue among scholars. In general, tradi-
tional Islam can be interpreted as a form of Islam which was historically
accepted and entered into the traditions and culture of the people. Howev-
er, in Tatarstan diff erent experts defi ne traditional Islam in diff erent ways.
For example, one expert says that it is necessary to divide traditional Is-
lam by regions of Russia. In diff erent regions, the term is understood dif-
ferently. According to that same expert, traditional Islam of Tatarstan is
ritual Islam, because the supporters of traditional Islam say that one must
55
Regina Hisamova, “Delo “Chistopolyskogo dzhamaata” vikhodit na fi nish,” (in Russian),
[The case of the “Chistopol Jamaat” goes to the fi nish line,”] Idel Realii, February 16, 2017,
https://www.idelreal.org/a/28313626.html (accessed April 15, 2018).
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