Islam and Nationalism in Volga-Ural Region
On September 15, 2011 at the first regular seminar of LCSR in this academic year the preliminary results of the research “Islam and Nationalism in Volga-Ural Region” (the case of Tatarstan and Bashkortostan) were presented by Eduard Ponarin, Director of LCSR, and Kirill Zhirkov, Research Fellow of LCSR.
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| Eduard Ponarin |
At first, Prof. Ponarin told about theoretical framework of this study. Nationalism has been declining since the 1950s in the Muslim societies, because it failed, firstly, to achieve a geopolitical victory in opposition to the West and Israel, and secondly, “to deliver better life to people within their countries”. Then, post-nationalist Islamism is coming to take place of Nationalism. Thus, the researchers suggested two hypotheses: 1) the failure of nationalism in the Muslim society will generally lead to its (partial) replacement with the Islamist ideology and 2) post-nationalist Islamism will cross ethnic and national boundaries.
The correlation between Islam and Nationalism was empirically analyzed in the case of Tatarstan and Bashkortostan (the sample consisted of four groups, there were about 400 people in each).
Kirill Zhirkov told about the preliminary results. Factor analysis showed the strong distinction between “ethnic” and “political” nationalism. The indicators of “ethnic” nationalism include, for example, respondent’s self-identification with his ethnic group, pride for her/his ethnic group etc. “Political” nationalism was estimated through the importance of separate Constitution and laws of the Republic which is different from Federal, etc. In addition, it was revealed that the indicators’ set of religiosity (regular praying, positive attitude to women wearing hijab) differ depending on group (Tatars in Tatarstan, Tatars in Bashkortostan, Bashkirs in Bashkortostan, Russians in both republics).
The new stage of poll will be conducted in autumn, 2011, and it will entail new interesting results.
Photos by Тatiana Chernova