VYTAUTO DIDŽIOJO UNIVERSITETAS Dalia

VYTAUTO DIDŽIOJO UNIVERSITETAS SOCIALINIŲ MOKSLŲ FAKULTETAS SOCIOLOGIJOS KATEDRA Dalia Markevičiūtė INTERNAL LINKAGES AND EXTERNAL ADJUSTMENT OF MUSLIM PEOPLE IN LITHUANIA (LIETUVOS MUSULMONŲ TARPUSAVIO RYŠIAI IR IŠORINIS PRISITAIKYMAS) Magistro baigiamasis darbas Socialinės antropologijos studijų programa, valstybinis kodas 62605S103 Sociologijos studijų kryptis Vadovas _prof. Victor de Munck____ _________ __________ (Parašas) (Data) Apginta ___________________ __________ __________ (Fakulteto/studijų instituto dekanas/direktorius) (Parašas) (Data) Kaunas, 2009 TABLE OF CONTENTS I.INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................................3 II.METHODOLOGY AND THEORETICAL BACKGRUOND..............................................................6 III.THE FIELD ..........................................................................................................................................10 IV.INTERNAL LINKAGES: CONGREGATION, COMMUNITY OR RANDAM PEOPLE?..............13 1. The importance of the collective prayer..........................................................................................................14 2. Pushing and pulling factors inside the congregation.......................................................................................16 a. Ethnic differences.................................................................................................................................17 b. The variety of languages ......................................................................................................................22 c. Social status..........................................................................................................................................23 d. Sexual segregation ...............................................................................................................................24 3. Tatars...............................................................................................................................................................27 4. The differentiation among Sunni and Shi’a ....................................................................................................29 V.EXTERNAL ADJUSTMENT: DIFFERENT PIETY, DIFFERENT ADJUSTMENT .......................31 1. Different definition of a Muslim ......................................................................................................32 a. Middle Easterners… ...............................................................................................................34 b. Lithuanian convert women .....................................................................................................37 2. Common mundane discomfort .........................................................................................................43 VI.CONCLUSIONS ..................................................................................................................................49 VII.SUMMARY..........................................................................................................................................51 VIII.SANTRAUKA......................................................................................................................................52 IX.REFERENCES .....................................................................................................................................57 2 INTRODUCTION Because of increasing number of immigrants into Europe, studies of Muslim communities are a significant topic in Western European social sciences, especially in countries containing large Muslim minorities – e.g., France, Germany, UK, and the Netherlands. Compared with Western countries Muslims in Lithuania are a very small group; possibly this is why they do not attract too much interest from the representatives of the social sciences, including anthropology. However, the existence of Muslims and the increasing number of them not so far from us in Western Europe attracts great attention from ordinary Lithuanians and raises mostly a negative, jingoistic, even racist reaction. This shows that the proximity of Muslims is relevant for Lithuanians but statements about Muslims are usually at the global, rhetorical level, and not very connected to the actual situation in Lithuania, as the situation of Muslims in Lithuania is still practically unknown. Besides, the striving for economic development in Lithuania also attracts and will continue to attract more and more immigrants from African and Asian countries1, including Muslim people so it is important to investigate what social environment those people may find here. The presence of Muslims in Lithuania is not a new thing. The first Muslims – Tatars from Crimea - came here 6 centuries ago. The new wave of Muslims came after the independence of Lithuania in 1990, i.e. students from Islamic countries, refugees from Islamic regions or countries, ethnic Lithuanians who change their religion to Islam. The number of nominally Muslims in Lithuania is about 3000 or more, but the community of religious practitioners is much less. This community consists of many small subgroups of different ethnic origin. Hence, the prime purpose of my research was to investigate how those small groups interconnect under the attribute which is common for all of them, i.e. Islam, and whether it helps to eliminate ethnic differences and to create a tight Islamic unity in Lithuania. Currently there are only 4 mosques in Lithuania and the mosque of Kaunas is the largest in size and worshipers in the country attracting believers from all over Lithuania, so it was one of main sites for my observations. The purpose of my research was to see what kind of Muslim community exists in Lithuania, what it consists of, how it functions and how it manages to adapt to the Lithuanian social, cultural 1 This statement I extracted from general prevalent attitude of Lithuanians which I observed during last years from personal discussions and reading comments of articles in internet about immigration trends into Europe. 3 economic, political, and economic environment. This research takes a holistic perspective; viewing Muslims as a minority, even a double minority: religious and often also ethnic. As a consequence of their minority status emerge other related issues such as individual and group articulation with other minorities and the majority Lithuanian Catholic population. The Lithuanian Muslim community is still very little explored, so without knowledge of the general context putting a strict focus on one aspect of their life would be too difficult and even slightly inappropriate. Lithuanian Muslims were being studied a bit only by E. Račius (2000, 2002, 2005) from the perspective of political science and religiosity. But he does not touch at all on the question of secular Muslims or on their everyday life, a central theme in anthropological studies. The main aim of my anthropological research was to indicate what kind of Muslim congregation we currently have in Lithuania, to investigate how the Muslims of Lithuania cope with their minority status, whether they aggregate into one solid community or stay segregated by the social differences among them and if they are isolated from the majority of society. The core topics of the research were the internal structure and dynamics as well as social external adjustments of this community. The topic is multidimensional because not many qualitative researches on Lithuanian Muslims were done and this research shows the process of aggregation and adjustment as a whole and requires the contribution of studies of ethnicity, gender studies, linguistic and religion, social geography, but these are only supporting texts and the anthropological theory is basic. I focused on two main issues: the internal structure of Muslim congregation and the level of external adjustment to broad Lithuanian society. The main questions of the research were the following: • What is their personal definition of being a Muslim? How do they perceive the “not proper” Muslims who do not live according to Islamic rules? • What are their major difficulties while living in Lithuania as a Muslim? • With whom do they mostly interact – local Lithuanians or other foreigners – and how are these interactions are built and supported? Additional, minor questions were different according to the particular interlocutor’s background. 4 The topics of internal linkages and external adjustment to the Lithuanian environment overlap since the level of adaptation is a potential indicator of how much they will stay united in order to avoid religious, cultural or other kind of isolation and vice versa. So the level of adaptation reflects how they are integrated into and accepted by the majority and indicates how porous or hard are national/ethnic/religious boundaries and how they are made. Since by saying “Muslim community” I mean both: 1) believers, no matter what their ethnic origin is; 2) people from Islamic predominant countries, no matter whether they are pious or not. I investigated whether a mechanical community proceeds to become an organic community, how this process is happening or why it does not happen, what kinds of linkages connect these groups of people into one Muslim aggregate. What sort of statuses is working as those social linkages creating/keeping relations among pious and secular people of Muslim origin: ethnicity, current

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