Muslims of Post-Communist Eurasia

This book discusses the evolution of state governance of Islam and the nature and forms of local Muslims’ rediscovery of their ’Muslimness’ across post-communist Eurasia. It examines the effects on the Islamic scene of the political and ideological divergence of Central and South-Eastern Europe from Russia and most of the Caucasus and Central Asia. Of particular interest are the implications of the proliferation of new, ’global’ interpretations of Islam and their relationship with existing ’traditional’ Islamic beliefs and practices. The contributions in this book address these issues through an interdisciplinary prism combining history, religious studies/theology, social anthropology, sociology, ethnology and political science. They analyse the greater public presence of Islam in constitutionally secular contexts and offer a critique of the domestication and accommodation of Islam in Europe, comparing these to what has happened in the international Eurasian space. The discussion is informed by the works of such thinkers as Talal Asad, Bryan Turner, Veit Bader, Marcel Maussen and Bassam Tibi, and utilises primary and secondary sources and ethnographic observation. Looking at how collectivities and individuals are defining what it means to be Muslim in a globalised Islamic context, this book will be of great interest to scholars of Religious Studies, Islamic Studies, Political Science, Sociology and Anthropology.

Galina M. Yemelianova is a Research Associate in the Centre of Contemporary Central Asia and the Caucasus at SOAS University of London, UK. She serves on the editorial boards of the Caucasus Survey and Oriens and the National Advisory Board of Europe-Asia Studies.

Egdūnas Račius is a Professor in the Department of Area Studies and the Department of Cultural Studies at Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania. He serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Muslims in Europe and the Yearbook of Muslims in Europe.