Divisions and Unity of the Novy Urengoy Muslim Community

Abstract

Novy Urengoy, in the oil-and-gas rich Yamalo-Nenets autonomous Okrug, became a central place for migrants, giving birth to an active Muslim community that found itself several times under the Russian media spotlight for its division and radicalization. The article looks first at institutional struggle to control the city’s Muslim community, before delving deeper into its ideological divisions and its unity in adapting practices to Far North. It concludes by discussing the arrival of new, power-related interactions between the North Caucasus and the largest Muslim community in Russia’s gas capital. This article is based on fieldwork conducted in March 2018.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. In the Soviet Union, there were “closed cities” whose residents were employed in strategically important production enterprises, mainly connected with the space and defense industry, nuclear energy and power engineering, and also oil and gas extraction. These were practically autonomous population centers that could be entered only with a pass and where the ordinary rules governing residence permits did not apply. The admission of new residents to such cities was under the strict control of the Soviet secret services. The successors to “closed cities” in post-Soviet Russia are the so-called “closed administrative-territorial formations,” which are under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Defense, the State Corporation for Space Activities (Roscosmos), and the State Atomic Energy Corporation (Rosatom). For a more detailed account of the phenomenon of “closed cities” in the Soviet Union, see Yarovitcin 2012).

2. A permit to live in a closed city could be obtained by a person who found work there or married one of its residents. An existing resident could arrange for a vacancy that had arisen in the city to be filled by a relative or acquaintance by submitting a “summons” for him or her.

3. Head of the Kyrgyz diaspora Tolkunbek Kudaybergenov; interview by the author, March 9, 2018. The total number of Kyrgyz in the whole of the YNAO may be as high as 16,000.

4. K., interview by the author, March 5, 2018.

5. Khaidar Khafizov, mufti of the YNAO, interview by the author, March 6, 2018.

6. R., interview by the author, March 8, 2018.

7. B., interview by the author, March 8, 2018.

8. On page 6 of the same issue of the newspaper we find interesting fatwas about expressing condolences to non-Muslims and registering marriages at state agencies (recommended in order to “avoid superfluous complications”).

9. Islamic religion does not have any officially recognized “Orthodoxy” or Church, so using the word “traditional” does not mean that other forms of Islam are non-traditional. But there is a common sense in Sunnism that to be Muslim, it is enough to believe in only One God and the mission of Prophet Muhammad, fulfill the five pillars of Islam, and belong to one of four Madhabs (schools of jurisprudence).

10. The imam-khatib of the Novy Urengoy mosque, Ilgiz-Khazrat Gilmanov, says that there are fewer than ten ethnic Russian Muslims in the city and that they are not organized into a separate community of ethnic Russian Muslims. Indeed, there is at present in Novy Urengoy no noticeable group of ethnic Russian Muslims; the handful of ethnic Russians who have converted to Islam prefer not to separate themselves from other Muslims.

11. The reason for this negative attitude lay in the fact that the representatives of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Dagestan were Sufis. In the Salafis’ opinion, Sufis worship the graves of their sheikhs, which Salafis regard as a terrible sin. They consider it forbidden for such sinners to perform prayer.

12. E., interview by the author, March 4, 2018.

13. The office of the mufti of the YNAO is not in the capital of the okrug, Salekhard, but in the cathedral mosque of Novy Urengoy.

14. I., interview by the author, March 6, 2018.

15. Hussein Elembaev, interview by the author, March 9, 2018.

16. Khaidar Khafizov, interview by the author, March 6, 2018.

17. Kh., interview by the author, March 7, 2018.

18. I., interview by the author, March 6, 2018.

19. E., interview by the author, March 4, 2018.

20. Takhir Otarov, interview by the author, March 5, 2018.

21. The iftar is the meal that breaks the Ramadan fast, which is observed only during the hours of daylight.

22. Tarawih-namaz is a special prayer performed only during the month of fasting. It is performed collectively by Muslims at a mosque after the night prayer.

23. The official website of the fund is https://hajfund.ru.

24. Situated in the village of Terekli-Mekteb in the Nogai Raion of the Republic of Dagestan.

25. I., interview by the author, March 6, 2018.