where I have been conducting fieldwork since February 2014. We are dealing here
with a coherent and stable group of believers who are using a moderate fundamentalist
rhetoric expressed orally and in written form in the literary Tatar language. In the
cities of Nizhnekamsk and Naberezhnye Chelny a number of Islamic authorities are
promoting a nationally-oriented and historically informed ‘pure’ version of Islamic
belief, in defiance of the politicised “traditional” Islam of the Kazan Muftiate.
Eva Rogaar (University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
Ali Viacheslav Polosin:
Moderation, Loyalty and Patriotism in Islam
This paper presents a case study on Ali Viacheslav Polosin (b. 1956), a former
Russian Orthodox priest with a PhD degree who converted to Islam in the late 1990s.
Since his conversion, Polosin has maintained close relations with the Russian state,
the Muftiate of Moscow and the Russian Council of Muftis. Polosin is supported by
the official Islamic structures and the Russian state in his activities.
After being affiliated for several years with the “National Organization of Russian
Muslims” (NORM) — Vadim (Kharun) Sidorov’s now controversial organization
which claims to represent the interests of all Muslims who want to preserve their
Russian identity in Islam — Polosin disagreed with the path NORM took in the late
2000s, and went in another direction. In 2011 he founded a Russian branch of the
Kuwaiti Islamic organization “Al-Wasatiyya” (“moderation”), of which he is now the
director. This organization presents itself as a counterbalance to “radicalism”, supports
the concepts of democracy and rule of secular law, and rejects ethnic nationalism in
Islam. The organization receives generous state funding in order to carry out its agenda.
This paper explores in particular the way in which Polosin articulates his views on
the relationship between Islam, the Russian state/secular rule, and modernization; his
discourse of “good” and “bad” Islam in Russia; and his call for a moderate, patriotic
Islam in Russia. Polosin’s utterances are compared with the official Russian state and
media discourse on these topics.Where possible, this paper also tracks down change in
Polosin’s organizational affiliation and in his discourse since the mid-2000s —against
the backdrop of developments in Russian domestic politics and in the Muslimworld.
Алмазова Л. И. (К(П)ФУ, Казань)
Татарский язык ислама (анализ устной и письменной речи
на религиозную тематику)
Ислам среди предков современных татар начал распространяться, по край-
ней мере, с начала X века. За тысячелетнюю историю религия глубоко проникла
Секция XV
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