Religious Revival and Secularism in Post-Soviet Azerbaijan

by Dobrosława Wiktor-Mach

  He has made the two seas to flow freely (so that) they meet together: Between them is a barrier which they cannot pass (55: 19–20).

  When the researcher realized that this fact was revealed 1400 years back to Prophet Muhammad, according to the story, he started to believe and accepted Islam. This story alongside with other accounts (proven or not) of statesmen, celebrities or scholars who converted to the Islamic religion is very popular among Muslims, especially among the younger generation. Such examples give them arguments in favour of Islam’s superiority over other religions, which they eagerly use.

  Apparently, a lot of intelligent design ideologues share the same tenants as active atheists: the empirical reality provides evidence for (or against) God’s existence. Creationists’ books are full of detailed accounts of empirical “facts” which are supposed to support their vision. The popularity of Harun Yahya and his writings in the post-Soviet states are partially due to the legacy of communism and the scientific materialistic worldview it propagated. But he may have also benefited from the Muslims willingness to counter the growing Islamophobia and the popular mass media Western image of Islam. Muslims want to feel pride in their traditions but cannot ignore common stereotypes presenting their religion as irrational and radical.

  In the context of Azerbaijan, science and its explanations do not constitute a real threat to religious beliefs in the supernatural world. The most common rhetoric underlines the advantages of Islam and its Holy Book over science, but also points to complementary roles of both systems. Religion encourages people to engage in studies and learning, and promotes those who strive to understand the world. On the other hand, science is believed to be able to provide proof of religious ideas and clarify some vague expressions typical of religious scriptures. “We need to respect and study science to learn how God has created the world. Science can show us the greatness of God. I love discussing molecular biology, chemistry, physics,” a young Salafi told me. In this way, science has been removed from the intellectual and ideological set of alternatives to religious explanations. In fact, it is well integrated into religious discourse. This man also mentioned his own discovery in the Scripture. Once, he told me, a scientist explained him that in mathematics there is a system consisting only of two numbers: zero and one. Then, while reading the Koran, this young Muslim found out a “fascinating fact”: the same rule applies to Islamic Holy Book: God himself says that either something exists or not, there is nothing in-between, no other possibility. That would mean, he carried on, that the Koran contains higher mathematics. Science is the Holy Book’s underlying principle. Thus, since the Prophet was uneducated, he could not have written the Koran alone. It is then another argument that rationally supports the reality of Allah and the religion he created. Such arguments are appealing to the youth who seeks certainty in our chaotic and rapidly changing world.

  Becoming a Convert

  A question remains, how do people usually find their way towards religious beliefs and engagement? Before we analyse the competition process, which enhances intensification of religious feelings, let us introduce a perspective of people who try in their own words to explain their reasons to “embrace” religion and the particular strategies they apply in dealing with pluralism. I explicitly use the term “embrace,” because the process of religious revival in post-Soviet societies resembles cases of new coverts in any religion. In this context, embracing religion does not mean that a person began to believe in God, since most of them believed even before. It does refer to a situation when a believing person turns to more active religious practice and makes an effort to live according to religious requirements. As anthropological inquiries into conversion show, it is not a simple act, but a process which is not a 0–1 choice. One of the contemporary ethnographers of post-socialism—Catherine Wanner (2004)—conducted research among Baptist, Pentecostal and Charismatic missionaries and believers in Ukraine which confirm that converting to another faith entails a large degree of creative adjustments and decisions. The need to embed one’s life in a particular context leads to many hybrid forms of practicing and understanding religion. It suggests that a convert’s religious worldview will not share only similarities with other members of his new community and more generally with the transnational “brothers and sisters.”

  The phenomenon of conversion36 from a secular to a religious Muslim is clearly visible in a comparison between Azerbaijani Muslims and Muslims who were born in societies without the experience of atheistic propaganda. I had a few conversations on religious topics with students in Baku who came from Kashmir, Pakistan and Bangladesh. All of them were brought up in religious surroundings. They learned Islamic religion gradually, from parents, teachers, and from other members of society since they were born. For them religion was taken for granted, even though they had an experience of frequent discussions on religious questions. By contrast, the majority of Azerbaijanis are socialized into some common religious rites in their families. This basic secular form of Islam with occasional religious practices and celebrations as well as superficial knowledge of Islam is discarded and vigorously rejected by religious people. They usually can point to a period in their life when they broke with the tradition of being only “ethnic” or “theoretical” Muslims. It was their conscious choice, they underline, although influenced by various factors.

  Two themes dominate the stories that people told me about choosing a more devout way of life. One I would call a communal choice, the other—individual. The former theme revolves around the massive process of religious revival that intensified in the early 1990s. Mostly people in their middle-ages situated their own experience in a historical context. Unlike the younger generation, older people experienced communism and remembered closed mosques and anti-religious atmosphere. They used to say that there was an ideological vacuum after the end of communism. On the other hand, as they constantly stressed, Soviets did not manage to eradicate the faith. The demand for religion that remained constant throughout communism enabled the future “return” to Islam. A director of a NGO gathering believing women explained this process in the following words:

  After the end of communism, first translations of the Koran appeared. Before, people had been aware that there exists a Sacred Book, but nobody knew it. When I have read it for the first time, it was like a bolt from the blue. Wonderful! Amazing! Lots of various books about religion were published, many organizations began to function. People engaged in humanitarian aid were coming from abroad and brought us books and materials about Islam. We were thirsty for information and absorbed everything we got. We wanted to comprehend our religion.

  Another woman added that there was a real hunger for religion and celebrations. What was concealed during the USSR, appeared later in public with huge power. Religion has always been present, she reassured. Even communists revealed their attachment to religion when they were at home. A practicing Muslim scholar, while talking about his way to Islam, said that his first contact with religion was at home. Even though his father was a communist, he attended mosque and celebrated all major Muslim holidays. In his view, people were allowed to follow religion, but communists had it tougher.

  Stories of the younger generation are usually more focused on personal experience, which they describe as individual and unique. They do not relate their choices to macro-scale socio-cultural processes. One pattern that emerges from their stories is a reflection upon the way that finally led to choosing to become a “real” Muslim. They pointed to a period in their lives when questions about existence and a sense of life appeared. Personal needs, hesitations, problems in life encouraged people to look for religion. According to a young woman from the Juma community, without sincere and serious spiritual needs nobody can really embrace religion. She told me a story of her sister whom she encouraged to attend weekly discussions on religious topics. The sister came once, listened to a lecture, and did not come back again. She did not have doubts nor questions. In a few years’ time, however, she
began to attend the meetings, but at that time it was her own decision.

  A Salafi man in his twenties was not religious at all earlier. He had some affairs with girls, was in the “wrong” company. At one point in his life, unexpectedly, he realized that relationships he had with women were not right. It was a message from above, as he knows now. It was then, as he told me, that he started to look for information on morality and religion. All the time he had believed in God, but did not consider himself a Muslim or Christian. Troubles with women meant an impulse for him to look into the Koran for guidance. This case is also rather typical in regard to morality. Social problems are acute, and in Baku, like in many metropolises, they are widespread and visible at every corner. Alcohol abuse, drugs, divorces, to mention a few, call for moral revolution, as some pious Muslims say. They argue that only living according to the Koran will change the “spoilt” world.

  Another detectable pattern of narrative refers to religious pluralism. Several of my respondents presented their way to religion as a process of getting familiar with various religions. Looking for information, reading books on Christianity and other religious traditions was a vital phase in their search. I have heard statements such as: “One must first know about many religions,” “my friend searched for his way for a very long time, he compared different religious scriptures and religions, read everything he could find, he got familiar with Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, and, after having learned everything, he decided to follow Islam. My way was exactly the same,” or “I am ethnically Muslim by definition. But once I began to ask myself questions about existence, life, and all sorts of philosophical questions. I got into comparative religion and finally decided to follow Islam.” There are cases of people who have not only read about other religions, but also practiced them. These examples show that there is a general spiritual search for meanings. There is a spiritual and ideological vacuum which many people feel and desperately look for a guidance. And, on the other hand, there are mullahs, akhunds and imams with university degrees in theology, there are books, journals and other kinds of materials, and —internet, which is becoming the most important written source of knowledge for urban youth.

  Fatima, a woman in hijab who feels quite close to the Salafi community, told me her story of discovering her way to God. After I have clarified that I am a not a Muslim, but Christian, she surprisingly confessed that she had been Christian in the past. It was only one year ago that she began wearing a head cover. Her family is Muslim, but her husband comes from an Orthodox family. The marriage did not make her change religion automatically, since her husband is an atheist. Nevertheless, she got interested in religion and soon was baptized. For some time the woman used to attend an Orthodox church and read a lot about Christian religion to know it thoroughly. But then some disappointments appeared culminating in a molestation of a boy by a clergyman that she witnessed (or at least, those are her words). Shocked by what she saw, the woman lost all her faith in the Christian Church and had to take antidepressants for two months. Afterwards Fatima decided to avoid any religious institution, and instead just to believe in God and pray to Him at home. At that time, however, she got interested in books on Islam. Having read several of them, she discovered that it is the right religion and made a choice to wear a hijab and make namaz.

  The history of Fatima, as well as others who search for meaning in various religious traditions, but eventually find them in Islam, is quite emblematic. The act of “choosing” religion is not without consequences. It seems that people want to underline their independent and rational decision in clinging to Islam. They look for arguments they find around, on Islamic websites and in various booklets, which provide easy justification for preferring Islam over other faiths. They refer to stories that circulate in society. They are very cautious not to present themselves as religious fanatics or fundamentalists. Religious culture is embedded in social context, and having Muslim friends around makes Islam the most natural and most convenient choice. Friends, colleagues, families exert invisible pressure on those who do not follow the social norms, who want to be outside. Especially in Azerbaijan it’s tougher to convert to other faiths also due to nationalistic pressures of the state that promotes Muslim identity as closely related to the ethnic one.

  Becoming a practicing Muslim transforms one’s social networks. Usually conversion results in a break-up with some friends or relatives who are not able to accept the choice and its implications. But conversion also entails entering into a new community. New friends, new opinion leaders, new authorities. This social side of religion is extremely important in people’s motivations. In Baku, which is undergoing dramatic changes, the sense of economic and social instability is prevalent. The rate of urbanization is high and the capital is a magnet for attracting the rural population as well as people from smaller towns coming to study or searching for jobs. In the chaotic and scary urban life, the solace and support of religious community plays an important role. Religious networks are a kind of alternative circle of information flow and exchanges of services not only of religious nature. Finding a job is much easier when you have an extended network of friends. Borrowing money or other goods, exchanging services, providing support of various kinds is common among a community members. It seems more common than relying on state or market institutions. Mathijs Pelkmans’ (2006, p. 42) account of Pentecostal Christians in contemporary Kyrgyzstan attests to the importance of social ties between believers in times of rapid social change. His respondents underlined an open, friendly and supportive atmosphere in their new community. They found people with similar problems and doubts whom they could trust. Trust is a scarce resource in post-Soviet republics.

  Conversions from “nominal Islam” or atheism into becoming practicing Muslims take place in the whole postsocialist world. This kind of massive shift in religious identity happen usually when societies experience sudden and rapid changes, when old institutions fall down or are restructured, when new social networks are created. Migration flows and new communication technologies make the diffusion of religious ideas much easier. I have observed it among Tatars in Poland, Kists in Georgia, and, for a longer time, among Azeris. Some patterns are different, but the contrast between the “cultural” and “religious” Muslims is widespread. The presence of revivalist movements and much easier access to religious knowledge in the context of rapid transformations bring many people closer to Islam. In Central Europe, when the cold war ended all of the sudden with the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Muslim Tatar communities faced enormous challenges. They have been experiencing a similar process of re-discovering Islam, alongside other elements of their culture and traditions. Re-establishing relations with Muslims from other countries, such as Lithuania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey, Tatarstan or Arab countries, pushed many Polish Tatars towards more intense religiosity (Wiktor-Mach, 2008).

  Stories of individual conversions in Central Asia have been collected by the team and collaborators of the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle. In 2003–2010 the Halle Focus Group researched the new role religion plays in post-communist societies. In the second phase of the comparative project the focus changed from the state and the public sphere perspective towards everyday life and transformation of social norms and values.37 Working in different former Soviet Republics (Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Dagestan and the Russian Federation in Ingushetia), they managed to identify similar, recurrent themes and patterns related to the discovery of religion by individuals. They found a set of factors that have an impact on the process of religious revival, such as teachings of religious leaders and activists, new religious media, transnational influences (Foszto, Hilgers, Pelkmans, McBrien, in Religion, Identity, Postsocialism (2010)).

  Julie McBrien identified a surprising channel of the religious revival. In a little town of Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia at the turn of the millennium foreign soap operas contributed actively to building a positive image of a religious Muslim. The Brazilian
Clone turned out to be an unexpected success and was the topic of street conversations. Its characters, Muslims from Morocco and Brazil, ignited discussions on everyday practices of Muslims. It did not matter too much that the images of Muslim life were stereotypical. It was the first time that a movie presented Muslims in an attractive light. For some Kyrgyz, the Clone became a point of reference in their discovery of Islam, even though the motives of the soap opera were far from religious and pious.

  Hesitation

  An appearance of new options on the religious landscape initiated a process of exchange of information between social actors of different religious traditions. For secular Muslims pluralism led to greater awareness of a variety of styles of religiosity. What are the consequences of such a process? In some cases, people incorporated some elements of different religious tradition into their basic religious identity. In other, an encounter with various options and an existing freedom of choice led people to embrace other models of Islam. Between those two practices, there is also a certain degree of hesitation brought about by religious competition. The choice is not always obvious and unproblematic.

  Hafiza has been raised in a secular Muslim family. Soon after moving to Baku to study she became interested in pious forms of religiosity that she was observing around. Once she showed me a difference in wearing a traditional, loose veil that most Muslim women use in mosques and a hijab, which, as she assured, had not been seen in Azerbaijan in the past. Wearing hijab is more demanding and complex. She is aware of the fact that the concept of hijab includes covering the whole body, especially legs and arms. She said, “When I moved to Baku, I wanted to start making namaz. I even inquired about the rules, but after reflecting upon it, I have given up this idea.” Hafiza has a positive attitude towards pious Islamic practices (excluding extremist forms), but she wants to postpone the decision to follow religious rules. The reasons she gave to explain her choice were varied. First of all, she regards the pious model as extremely demanding and very different from her own tradition. It would require her to adjust her lifestyle, to follow very strict discipline. Pious life is extremely absorbing and challenging. Thus, a decision to become a religious person is a very serious one. In her interpretation, once a person decides on becoming a practicing Muslim, he or she must follow that new path one hundred percent: