Window on Eurasia: Russia’s Muslim Bloggers Speak Out on Putin, the Elections, and Their Community

Paul Goble

Vienna, November 27 – Russia’s Muslims are increasingly organizing their own blogs and posting notices on Internet forums, a development that has prompted the Islam in the Russian Federation website to publish the first of what it promises to be a regular description of this virtual space.
In a detailed essay filled with hypertext links to Muslim bloggers and forums, Aynur Sibgatullin provides a glimpse into one of the most important public spaces where the faithful in the Russian Federation are trying out new ideas and thereby building a community (http://www.islamrf.ru/articles.php?razdel=1&sid=1050).
Because Sibgatullin limits himself to materials posted during the first three weeks of this month, it is difficult to know whether what he describes is typical of this genre earlier or represents part of a clear trend. That will become obvious only after he files a number of such stories.
Even in this relatively brief period, however, he was able to find and then report on some intriguing comments by Muslims from various parts of the Russian Federation about Muslim attitudes toward Putin, participation in the upcoming parliamentary elections, and the efforts of Russia’s Muslims to organize themselves.
With regard to President Vladimir Putin, Sibgatullin reports, the Muslim blogosphere during these weeks was filled with discussions about whether it was appropriate for the followers of Islam to form groups like “the Muslims of Tatarstan for Putin.”
Some bloggers denounced this step, given what they see as the Kremlin leaders less than supportive approach to Muslims in the past. But other bloggers argued in favor of it, noting that Putin “unlike a majority of Tatars” attends religious services, albeit Christian ones, and suggesting that those who oppose him should form other groups.
Concerning Muslim participation in the December 2nd elections, the Muslim blogosphere was divided, with some arguing that Muslims have no business taking part in elections in a non-Muslim state and others saying that this is the only way Russia’s Muslims can increase their influence on such a state in the short term.
But on the ru_islam forum (http://community.livejournal.com/ru_islam/), “hidjab” --(http://hidjab.livejournal.com/) -- expressed what is likely the view of many Muslims on this issue: “I do not see a big difference between these existing parties, so none of them is all that interesting to me.” Only when they start taking direct positions on the Islamic community will it matter.
And finally, but certainly not unexpectedly, much of Russia’s Muslim blogosphere during this period was filled with discussions of the meaning of the Third All-Russian Muslim Forum that took place in Moscow over the course of the first four days of November.
Various bloggers, Sibgatullin noted, provided far more detailed descriptions of what had taken place there than did any of the regular media or even more formal Muslim websites. He said that the articles of Fatima Anastasiya Yezhova, whose Live Journal blog name is “sestra_fatima” (http://sestra-fatima.livejournal.com/), especially impressed him.
As is often the case with bloggers everywhere, perhaps the most interesting comments came from those who were correcting speakers on specific facts – such as how long the Bashkirs had resisted Russian occupation – or putting a different spin on the importance of the meeting than the participants typically did.
But of course, as Sibgatullin himself points out, in addition to discussions of these relatively serious matters, the postings of Russia’s Muslims in the blogosphere also feature information about various strange, improbable, and perhaps totally invented groups and events.
He gives as an example of this the posts on the “muslim_elves” community (http://community.livejournal.com/muslim_elves/), a group of bloggers who say they believe, how seriously is very much an open question, that elf-style role-playing allows them to navigate between the extremes of Sufism or Wahhabism.
Whether these Russian “Muslim Elves” will attract many followers remains to be seen, but their postings and those of other Muslim bloggers on what is the freest part of the Russian media provide an extraordinarily valuable means to learn what this community thinks and where Russia’s growing number of Muslims may be going.

Window on Eurasia: Russia’s Saami Follow Lead of Their Co-Ethnics in Scandinavia

Paul Goble

Vienna, November 27 – Explicitly drawing on the experience of their co-ethnic Laplanders in Sweden, Norway and Finland, the leaders of the 1790 Saami in Russia’s Murmansk Oblast want to set up their own parliament to control the dispersal of government funds allocated to their numerically small nationality.
Such a borrowing from Scandinavia, where Saami parliaments have existed for many years and play an important role in government decision making about this community, not only could help to maintain the Saami ethnic group in the Russian North but also become a model for other small nationalities there.
But Russian officials have already indicated that while they will not oppose the formation of this group, they cannot give it the budgetary authority the Saami seek because Russian law prohibits handing over such powers to any non-governmental organization (http://www.b-port.com/info/smi/rg/?issue=3486&article=65294).
Last week, Saami leaders met to discuss the formation of such a body. They did so because many of them believe that the Murmansk authorities are not using the money they have allocated for ethnic minorities in a rational way in large part because they have failed to consult the minorities themselves.
In 2006, the Murmansk oblast government approved a three-year, 65 million ruble (2.6 million U.S. dollar) program to promote reindeer herding and education among the Saami and other numerically small ethnic communities. These funds are being spent on peoples who form less than one percent of the region’s population.
Saami community leaders, like Nina Afanas’eva, who heads the Association of Kola Saami, argue that the only way to guarantee that such large numbers of money – more than 1400 U.S. dollars per person – is to have a Saami parliament be in charge of their use.
Russian officials reject such an arrangement and point out that the Saami already have large number of public bodies, including three social organizations, two national cultural autonomies, and more than 20 communal groups, far more than would appear to be necessary to advise on and then help resolve all current issues.
But what is intriguing about all this is not the objections of the officials but rather the growing awareness of the Saami about what their co-ethnic communities abroad are doing and their insistence that the Russian government give them the same opportunities those in other countries have.
That may not happen anytime soon, but other numerically small ethnic groups in the Russian North are certain to be watching the Saami case in Murmansk and may advance similar demands, especially as both the Arctic and interest in that region heat up over the coming decades.