Languages of Islam and Christianity in Post-Soviet Russia by Gulnaz Sibgatullina, Brill, 2020, 220 pp., €126.00 (e-book, hardcover), ISBN 9789004426450, ISBN 9789004426443.
Year: 2024
Type: book-review
Abstract: Translation is never neutral," Gulnaz Sibgatullina (13) notes in the introduction of this book that explores Russian and Tatar Islamic and Orthodox Christian rhetoric as well as the relationship between religious language and political realities in Russia.Wisely, Sibgatullina does not assess what the correct translation is but scrutinizes how different choices of words are used to persuade the audience, create identities, and make theological interpretations, and observes what they convey about the religious and political underpinnings of the author.The book begins with two introductory chapters that explain the research design and map the main groupings in Orthodox Christianity and Tatar Islam in Russia.The analysis is divided into two parts that address the Russian language of Islam and the Tatar language of Christianity through selected cases.Many of the chapters or versions of them have previously been published as articles, but the structure of the book is balanced and there is not much repetition.The last chapter of the second part, which focuses on the translations of the New Testament, operates on a more detailed level than the previous ones in the book.However, sociolinguists studying the post-Soviet context will undoubtedly find Sibgatullina's meticulous analysis of Russian, Arabic, Tatar and Kräshen terminology useful.Not only do the selected cases offer intriguing viewpoints on questions of translation, but they also nicely cover major trends in post-Soviet Muslim-Orthodox relations.In the Russian mainstream discourse on religion, Sibgatullina argues, the main gatekeepers are the state, the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), and the Islamic Spiritual Directorates or Muftiates, the latter of these playing a subordinate role.Sibgatullina notes that the representatives of the statesanctioned Muftiates often seem to target their speeches more at the political elites than at ordinary believers.For example, the Chairman of the Russian Council of Muftis, Ravil' Gainutdin, regularly uses Russian and Orthodox expressions instead of Islamic terms derived from the Arabic or Persian languages.With these kinds of linguistic choices, Sibgatullina argues, he aims to create an air of familiarity and Russianness for the Islam his Muftiates represent.As is typical of Russian Muftis, Gainutdin's speeches and writings also follow the political ideology of the Kremlin, emphasizing traditionalism, nationalism, and conservatism.Though Islam in Russia comprises myriads of different Islamic traditions and competing organizations, Gainutdinlike many other Russian Islamic leadersaims to bolster the position of his Muftiates as an equivalent of the ROC.There have been several attempts to create some unifying framework for what "Russian Islam" is and an institutional structure that would resemble the ROC more.However, such attempts regularly fail because of the diversity of Islam in Russia and because they are based on very non-Islamic traditions.Similar processes have also been noted in Europe and, as in that area, Sibgatullina argues that the attempts at the "churchification" of Islam usually lead to deepening the internal divisions.The idea that one's ethnicity determines one's religion is deeply rooted in Russian thinking.This societal norm has been challenged by ethnic Russians who have converted to Islam.Perhaps unsurprisingly, these converts have been painted as a major social and security threat in Russian public discussions as the intriguing case of the National Organization of Russian Muslims (NORM) demonstrates.Some of the founders of this organization had previously been active in right-wing ultra-nationalist circles.However, it can be suggested that the crackdown on NORM was largely due to its support for the opposition that demanded fair elections in 2011-2012.An alternative route was
Source: Nationalities Papers
DOI: 10.1017/nps.2024.84
Author: Kaarina Aitamurto
Institution: University of Helsinki
Language: English
Subfield: Language and Linguistics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4404085528