CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VOLUME VII (1, 2) Contemporary-Eurasia-3new | Page 78

CONTEMPORARY EURASIA
towards the radicals. They operate by the principle of isolating the radi-
cals from the society. Usually radicals receive long jail times. Laws have
been adopted according to which even expressing sympathy towards the
radicals, regarding the issue of radicalism, is united, everyone wants the
situation in the region to be stable and peaceful. Moreover, on expert em-
phasized that in Tatarstan people and the authorities are very concerned
with the image of the republic. Thus they are trying to portrait that the
siltation is under the control. They are trying to show that radicals are
only separate individuals, that the social background for the development
of radicalism does not exist.
Overall, based on the conducted interviews, there are three views re-
garding the issue of radicalization of the region. First, the radicalization
is very actual and there is a potential that the situation can be worse, thus
the law enforcement agencies must be alert. Second, Tatarstan does not
face the issue of radicalism. Third, though there are individual with radi-
cal views, they cannot facilitate radicalization in the region.
Conclusion
This research argues that one of the reasons which explain the spread
of Wahhabism is the fact that till now Tatar Muslims do not have clearly
defi ned perceptions of traditional Islam. If in Chechnya Sufi sm has been
recognized as the traditional religion, then in Tatarstan the clergy has to
yet clearly and precisely identify the concept of traditional Islam. An im-
portant factor is that not only in Tatarstan but in entire Russian Islam-
ic concepts are misused. Fundamentalism, Wahhabism, and Salafi sm are
considered non-traditional and radical. However, it is wrong to consider
all fundamentals as radicals, and Wahhabism and Salafi sm as the same
branch of Islam. Though conceptually they are the same but have diff er-
ent approaches. There are also variations within the Wahhabism. On the
one hand it is the offi cial religion of Saudi Arabia, on the other hand the
conceptual base of ISIS. In-depth examination will show that they are
some vivid diff erences between these two variants of Wahhabism. They
are many Muslims in Russia who consider themselves Wahhabi but are
not radicals. Thus, calling them all as radicals can arouse frustration and
lead them to radical actions.
Based on the collected data and analysis the connection of Tatars to
international terrorist organizations facilitates the spread of radicalism.
The international social movements, such as “Hizb-ut-Tahrir al-Islam,”
“Tablighi Jamaat” which are based on Wahhabi ideology were quite ac-
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