The problem of the formation of Muslim identity in the Republic of Bashkortostan

Sankarov Ali 450077, Russia, respublika Bashkortostan, g. Ufa, ul. Karla Maksa, 6 ali.sankarov@mail.ru

Currently, domestic scientists have made efforts to form the concept of Muslim identity. In his writings, A.N. Krylov, A.V. Bogomolov, R.V. Borisov, R.Yu. Rakhmatulin, etc. ^{[7; 2; 3;11]} explore various aspects of the role of the Islamic worldview in the structures of social and political identity of citizens. Discussions about the current state of Muslim identity have affected many scientific centers. Thus, E.M. Arutyunova, A.V. Bogomolov, R.V. Borisov, A.M. Buranchin ^{[14, pp. 24-31]}, etc. they analyze the current trends in the development of Muslim identity. According to the above-mentioned authors, the question of the specifics of Islamic identity is directly related to the problem of the correlation of Quranic and regional Islam.

The rulers of Russia have always had loyal Muslim communities under their rule. Agreements between Moscow and Muslim spiritual leaders supported these relations, and they were generally respected. Things haven't changed that much now. The Muslim believers are in charge of the “Russian-Islamic” establishment, which cultivates cordial relations with both the official and the ROC. The Russian Constitution states that the country is secular, without a state religion, and all religious associations are equal and separate from the state. However, the law recognizes Islam as one of the four “traditional” religions of the country (in addition to Christianity, Judaism and Buddhism), which form an integral part of the historical heritage of the country. The central and provincial muftiats are on good terms with the Kremlin and the regional leadership. The Russian government provides assistance to Muslim institutions by financing some educational and cultural events. There are no Muslim political parties in Russia, but Muslims are integrated into Russian political life. Some of them even held ministerial posts in the Russian government. In the Muslim-majority republics, especially in the North Caucasus, the main positions in the state structure and industry are occupied mainly by ethnic Muslims. Muslim chaplains were officially appointed in some parts of the Russian army in the North Caucasus and abroad. In some places, local imams visit the armed forces from time to time, and Muslim religious representatives are often invited to the swearing-in ceremonies of new soldiers. Some private hospitals have prayer rooms for Muslim patients and staff. Some prisons have mosques and houses of worship with permanent imams. Muslim religious holidays Eid al-Adha (Eid al-Fitr) and Eid al-Fitr (Eid al-Adha) are public holidays in almost all predominantly Muslim republics. Muslims living in other regions can usually take a day off from work, provided they make up for their absence later. The President of Russia annually officially congratulates Muslim citizens on their religious holidays.

The presence of an Islamic identity (natural or artificially created) can serve as a lock against extremism. Tatarstan and the North Caucasus are the largest Muslim regions of the Russian Federation and have their own characteristics and identity. Tatar secularism can provide answers to questions about how to integrate Islam into their culture without losing its main aspects, but at the same time allowing the exchange of qualities to enrich both identities. However, this secularism is the result of centuries-old coexistence of Russians and Tatars. The traditionalism of the republics of the North Caucasus, such as Chechnya and Dagestan, can be considered a quality that functioned as a natural fort and front against extremist Islamist movements. These regions have given important personalities to Russian science, politics, sports, music, art, entertainment and many others. This could be possible only if the conditions necessary for the free and safe development of all people, regardless of their ethnic or religious affiliation, were created. Moreover, people from these regions have a sense of self-identification and belonging to the Russian Federation

Representatives of Muslim ethnic groups in Russia have different structures of social identity. Highlighting the Muslim identity of believers in modern Bashkortostan raises many questions. Firstly, the criteria for the sociological definition and counting of Muslims remain controversial ^{[10, p.36]}. Secondly, communities with different ethnic roots and cultural traditions of adapting Islam live in Bashkortostan.

In modern Russian society, there is a variety of individual ideas about what it means to be a true Muslim, about the conditions for the formation of an Islamic identity ^{[9, p. 29]}. The nature of this phenomenon is quite complex, since the "Islamic" identity in modern Bashkir society coexists and competes with ethnic identity. Moreover, the phenomenon of religious identity itself has a double essence.. Historical experience shows that religious identity, as well as ethnic identity, becomes the object of attention from various political forces that provide themselves with broad social support ^{[1, p.39]}.

The phrase "Muslims of Bashkortostan" is difficult to interpret due to a number of circumstances ^{[3, p.29]}. Firstly, a variety of ethnic groups live in Bashkortostan. Secondly, the media form a negative image of the Bashkir Muslim^{[5, p. 24]}.

In our field research conducted in 2020-2021 in different regions of Bashkortostan, due to the multicomponence and complexity of its subject, a set of interdisciplinary methods of humanities was used: the historiographical method, comparative and hermeneutic methods. This methodological complex, the elements of which have been repeatedly used in research practice in the study of ethnic traditions of various peoples of the Russian Federation professing Islam, is aimed at reconstructing the modern Islamic identity of Muslims of Bashkiria.

The Islamic community of Bashkortostan can be divided into 2 groups. The first one includes citizens who correlate their religious identity with belonging to a certain ethnic group. It includes peoples who are historically Muslim (Bashkirs, Tatars). The second group includes Russians, for whom religious identity is the main one. At the moment, it is actively developing both in quantitative and qualitative terms. But at the same time, it is possible to identify a number of problems that it faces in its development. The first and main problem is the break with traditional Islam. This problem lies in the fact that modern Islamic leaders lack continuity with the figures of the pre-revolutionary stage of the development of Islam. The Central Duma of the Russian Federation and the Duma of the Republic of Belarus consider themselves the legal successors of the corresponding Islamic institutions of the beginning of the XX century, structurally they were recreated in the last third of the XX century ^{[5, p. 25]}.

The result of these processes should be the independence of social groups with a dominant religious identity. These groups form a new image of a Muslim, which is characterized by cohesion [7. C. 33]. The qualitative characteristics of the Islamic confessional identity in Bashkiria at this stage of development are determined by the general socio–cultural background, on the one hand, and the internal processes of the fundamentalization of the Muslim community, on the other. At the same time, it is necessary to take into account the social base on the basis of which this subject is formed. Moreover, if these professional spheres prevail in the religious attitude and ideological attitudes of the religious-historical "myth", then many other spheres of life may remain out of consideration. The result of this process can be the formation of a socio-cultural subject with dominant archaic attitudes

In this paper, Muslim identity in the Republic of Bashkortostan is considered as the practice of involvement in the tradition of Islam. With this approach, it is not the level of religiosity that is important, but the forms and methods of inclusion in the tradition of Islam and activity in its transformation. The consideration of Islam in this aspect provides prospects for studying the everyday structures of "Muslimness" and overcoming contradictions regarding Islam in modern society.

Religious identity in this work is understood as "a form of self-consciousness based on the awareness of belonging to a certain religion and forming ideas about oneself and the world through religious dogmas" ^{[7, p. 223]} and the implementation of religious principles in life. Religious identity is an integral element of the identity of the individual of any developed society. Within the framework of a common identity, it can occupy both a subordinate, secondary position, characterizing, for example, the ethnicity of the individual, and a dominant position. The fundamental difference between these types of identity relations is the setting of goals and objectives for the development of society. In the first case, goals and objectives are set based on the needs and socio-cultural characteristics of a particular society and do not have a sacred status. Consequently, they can change together with society itself under the influence of objective historical and natural conditions. In the second case, the goals and objectives of social development are of a sacred nature, since they receive their justification through an appeal to religious dogmas. Because of this, the impact of the above-mentioned objective circumstances is perceived not as a source of development of society, but as something that prevents the implementation of an absolute, unchangeable law.

The category "Muslim" indicates belonging to Islam. The result is a picture that reflects two multidirectional processes: on the one hand, the preservation of religious values; on the other hand, the emergence of fundamentalist sentiments ^{[15, P.1-22]}.

One of the main ways to maintain the tradition is to form a memory of the meaning of Islam ^{[11, p. 129-131]}. This memory is perceived as part of a personal or collective ethnic history and is thus passed on to younger generations of Bashkirs.

And if the older generation is focused on preserving traditions, then among young people one can observe a change in ideas about the role of Islam. Young people are trying to create a new image of a Muslim ^{[13, pp.151-152]}. And in this sense, young Muslims differ from the tradition of Islam of their parents.

The formation of Muslim identity presupposes an appeal to religious knowledge ^{[6, p.209]}. The value of learning and mastering knowledge becomes central. And if for the older generation of Muslims it is the development of basic ideas, then for the vast majority of young people the desire and ability to learn. Due to the loss of the authority of the ancestral tradition, the process of acquiring identity becomes more individual.

Summing up our work, it should be noted that the tradition of Islam in Bashkiria is maintained through the participation of individual individuals who determine for themselves the nature and degree of involvement in the Muslim cult ^{[8, p. 29]}. And not only personal preferences are crucial for transmission, but also the interaction of these ideas in individual communities. Thus, the tradition of Islam in Bashkiria appears as a constantly redefined and developing project.

The results obtained generally confirm our hypothesis that Muslim identity is part of national (ethnic) identity. However, in the conditions of a severe socio-cultural crisis in the Russian Federation, it is able to replace or even compete with the latter ^{[4, pp. 98-119]}. In addition, different types of identity can have a dual character, that is, change depending on the conditions. Nevertheless, behind this phenomenon lies, first of all, the desire of the individual's consciousness to rely on religious identity, which offers a qualitatively different picture of life. Thus, we are talking about a complex social problem of the gradual inclusion of religious values in the national identity of modern Bashkir society.

Recently, the modern virtual space has a direct impact on almost all spheres of human activity. Religious identity is becoming an important part of ethnic identity and is increasingly manifested in the virtual space. The Muslim religious virtual space has a number of features. It is used mainly by the youth audience. There is no regulation in the Russian Islamic virtual space and the extent of its use for the clergy themselves is not defined. Under the influence of the virtualization of culture, religious identity is being transformed, which leads to the disruption of the usual communication channels and the transmission of religious experience within the framework of traditional Islam.  Various new religious movements and sects are emerging. As a result, modern man is in a situation of choice: either to preserve his religious identity within the framework of traditional Islam, or in the conditions of sociality transformation to initiate the process of identity change.

At the moment, we see a gradual growth of the religious segment of the virtual space, and each religious institution forms its own system of unique services, some of which are adapted only to the needs of Internet users. At the same time, the Internet space hinders the formation of religious identity within the framework of traditional Islam.