Paul Goble
Vienna, July 17 – Young Russians inflamed by radical nationalist and xenophobic ideas are more numerous today than at any point since sociologists began studying the phenomenon in the late 1980s, with some investigators suggesting that there may now be as many as 500,000 Russian young people involved in extremist groupings.
And the number of such young people aged between 13 and 30 and especially between 15 and 17 is increasing rapidly, especially in the major cities in the hitherto predominantly Russian European portion of the country, an article in today’s “Novyye izvestiya” reported (http://www.newizv.ru/news/2007-07-17/72924/).
The exact number of young Russians who are now extremists remains very much a matter of dispute, in some respects because of problems with the available data and in others because of definition: Are all violent football fans to be included? Or are those without a clearly articulated nationalist ideology to be excluded?
Aleksandr Brod of the Moscow Human Rights Bureau gives the highest number – half a million – while others including the SOVA Center’s Galina Kozhevnikova give lower ones, with “no more than 60-70,000” real extremists surrounded by a much larger penumbra of hangers-on.
But the students of this subject appear to agree on three important things: First, they all say, the number of young Russian extremists is growing and now is at a level higher than at any time since this phenomenon began to be tracked in 1988, with no sign that this rise is about to end anytime soon.
Second, they insist, a major reason why he number has increased because over the last 10 to 15 years is that the young have concluded that they can act on their extremist views with little fear of punishment because many in positions of power back their ideas or at least will help to protect those who manifest them.
And third, extremist attitudes are far more widespread among young people than in the population as a whole. According to the Levada Center’s Lev Gudkov, some four to six percent of the total Russian population has Nazi-like extremist views, but among the young, the share of extremists may be as high as 15 percent.
With the passing of time, some of these young people may outgrow their radical and xenophobic nationalism, but given the large numbers of those now infected, many will not – and that will pose yet another challenge to already embattled political liberties in the Russian Federation.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Window on Eurasia: Tatar Muslims Choose Islamic Marriages Over State Registration
Paul Goble
Vienna, July 17 – Young people in Tatarstan increasingly are choosing to marry according to Islamic precepts in the mosque rather than register their marriages with the state, a change that some are making because of the ease of dissolving such unions and a step that others are taking because of the increasing importance of Islam in their lives.
In the Tatar-language newspaper “Shehri Kazan” on July 7, journalist D. Zeimullina notes that ever more young people in Tatarstan are choosing to affirm their marriages through the Islamic ritual of nakat rather than officially register with the state’s ZAGS office (http://www.islamrf.ru/articles.php?razdel=1&sid=727).
Several young women told her, Zeimullina says, that they were doing so both to avoid “awkward questions” from their parents about their relationships and also to be in a position to dissolve their marriages without recourse to a lengthy legal process should the match not work out.
Those calculations undoubtedly lie behind at least some of this trend, but a local imam, Is’dus-khazrat Faizov of Kazan’s Bulgar mosque, said that in his experience most of the young people choosing the religious service over state registration were doing so because of their commitment to Islam.
“For a Muslim,” Faisov continued, “earthly laws are secondary.” And consequently, it should come as no surprise to anyone that many Muslims, having taken part in the ritual of nakat “do not consider it necessary to reaffirm the bonds of matrimony in ZAGS.”
And he noted that “if a young man and a young woman begin their join life with the thought that they ‘will wait and see,’ then any nakat between them is something forbidden, and it would be better if it never took place.”
The “Shehri Kazan” article does not address two other issues that this article implicitly raises. On the one hand, it does not discuss the impact such unregistered marriages have on the statistics maintained by the governments of Tatarstan and the Russian Federation.
And on the other, it does not talk about what it means to the broader society when an increasing number of people opt out of government-mandated registration, when they truly believe, as the imam put it, that for them, such “earthly laws” are not only “secondary” but something that can be ignored.
Meanwhile, in Moscow, the Muslim community of Butovo announced plans to open a marriage agency to help young Muslims meet and fall in low. So far, this community has been helping informally but in the near future plans to launch its own website (http://muslim-press.ru/, July 17).
Vienna, July 17 – Young people in Tatarstan increasingly are choosing to marry according to Islamic precepts in the mosque rather than register their marriages with the state, a change that some are making because of the ease of dissolving such unions and a step that others are taking because of the increasing importance of Islam in their lives.
In the Tatar-language newspaper “Shehri Kazan” on July 7, journalist D. Zeimullina notes that ever more young people in Tatarstan are choosing to affirm their marriages through the Islamic ritual of nakat rather than officially register with the state’s ZAGS office (http://www.islamrf.ru/articles.php?razdel=1&sid=727).
Several young women told her, Zeimullina says, that they were doing so both to avoid “awkward questions” from their parents about their relationships and also to be in a position to dissolve their marriages without recourse to a lengthy legal process should the match not work out.
Those calculations undoubtedly lie behind at least some of this trend, but a local imam, Is’dus-khazrat Faizov of Kazan’s Bulgar mosque, said that in his experience most of the young people choosing the religious service over state registration were doing so because of their commitment to Islam.
“For a Muslim,” Faisov continued, “earthly laws are secondary.” And consequently, it should come as no surprise to anyone that many Muslims, having taken part in the ritual of nakat “do not consider it necessary to reaffirm the bonds of matrimony in ZAGS.”
And he noted that “if a young man and a young woman begin their join life with the thought that they ‘will wait and see,’ then any nakat between them is something forbidden, and it would be better if it never took place.”
The “Shehri Kazan” article does not address two other issues that this article implicitly raises. On the one hand, it does not discuss the impact such unregistered marriages have on the statistics maintained by the governments of Tatarstan and the Russian Federation.
And on the other, it does not talk about what it means to the broader society when an increasing number of people opt out of government-mandated registration, when they truly believe, as the imam put it, that for them, such “earthly laws” are not only “secondary” but something that can be ignored.
Meanwhile, in Moscow, the Muslim community of Butovo announced plans to open a marriage agency to help young Muslims meet and fall in low. So far, this community has been helping informally but in the near future plans to launch its own website (http://muslim-press.ru/, July 17).
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