Yearbook of Muslims in Europe Volume 7

Editor-in-Chief Oliver Scharbrodt

Editors Samim Akgönül Ahmet Alibašić Jørgen S. Nielsen Egdūnas Račius

LEIDEN | BOSTON

Preface ix The Editors xv Editorial Advisers xvii List of Technical Terms xviii

Islams in Europe: Satellites or a Universe Apart? 1 Jonathan Laurence

Country Surveys

Albania 13 Olsi Jazexhi

Armenia 33 Sevak Karamyan

Austria 41 Kerem Öktem

Azerbaijan 62 Altay Goyushov

Belarus 79 Daša Słabčanka

Belgium 87 Jean-François Husson

Bosnia and Herzegovina 114 Aid Smajić and Muhamed Fazlović

Bulgaria 130 Aziz Nazmi Shakir

Croatia 145 Dino Mujadžević

Cyprus 157 Ali Dayıoğlu and Mete Hatay

Czech Republic 174 Štěpán Macháček

Denmark 182 Brian Arly Jacobsen

Estonia 201 Ringo Ringvee

Finland 209 Teemu Pauha

France 226 Anne-Laure Zwilling

Georgia 247 Thomas Liles and Bayram Balci

Germany 272 Mathias Rohe

Greece 289 Konstantinos Tsitselikis and Alexandros Sakellariou

Hungary 302 Esztella Csiszár

Iceland 314 Kristján Þór Sigurðsson

Ireland 321 Colette Colfer

Italy 337 Stella Coglievina

Latvia 364 Simona Gurbo

Lithuania 370 Egdūnas Račius

Luxembourg 378 Elsa Pirenne and Lucie Waltzer

Malta 391 Martin R. Zammit

Moldova 397 Aurelia Felea

Montenegro 407 Sabina Pačariz

Netherlands 421 Martijn de Koning

Norway 436 Sindre Bangstad and Olav Elgvin

Poland 450 Agata S. Nalborczyk

Portugal 465 José Mapril

Romania 474 Irina Vainovski-Mihai

Russia 486 Elmira Akhmetova

Serbia 503 Ivan Ejub Kostić

Slovenia 523 Christian Moe

Spain 534 Jordi Moreras

Sweden 549 Göran Larsson

Switzerland 562 Mallory Schneuwly Purdie and Andreas Tunger-Zanetti

Turkey 579 İştar Gözaydın

Ukraine 592 Mykhaylo Yakubovych

United Kingdom 607 Asma Mustafa

Egdūnas Račius

Introduction

As the number of Muslims in Lithuania remains miniscule (less than 3,000, according to offfĳicial statistics), their religiously-related activities are limited and, as a rule, kept out of the public eye. The existing Muslim organisations (most notably, the Muftiate) prefer to keep a low profĳile, and there are no contro- versial public fĳigures among Muslims who would (seek to) attract public attention. No openly anti-Muslim groups operate in Lithuania either. Consequently, the public reaction to (or rather awareness of) a Muslim presence in Lithuania is only sporadic and mainly in the form of ad hoc media reporting. Though not directly related to the presence of Muslims in Lithuania, in 2014 the Lithuanian business community showed an observably increased interest in the production and marketing of halal goods. With the sanctions on Lithuanian food products imposed by Russia, more and more food producers, especially those in meat processing, show interest in exporting food products to Muslim-majority countries. After heavy lobbying by major meat processing companies, the Lithuanian parliament1 passed amendments to the Law on Welfare and Protection of Animals in September of 20142 allowing for religious (including inter alia Islamic) ritual slaughter of domestic animals. However, as could have been expected, groups concerned with animal rights objected to the amendments and initiated counter-lobbying with a degree of public debate.3 Nevertheless, the debate had little to no relation to Islam and revolved mainly around the welfare of animals destined for ritual slaughter as well as businesses pushing the amendments.4 In this regard, Muslims remained peripheral in and to the debate.

* Egdūnas Račius is Professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, Lithuania. 1 www.dw.de/facing-russia-sanctions-lithuania-oks-ritual-slaughter/a-17948859, accessed 15 January 2015. 2 www3.lrs.lt/pls/inter3/dokpaieska.showdoc_l?p_id=483657, accessed 15 January 2015. 3 http://grynas.delfĳi.lt/gyvenimas/susigincijo-ar-musulmonai-valgys-lietuviska-karviena.d?id =65800482#ixzz3D16ZT0ov, accessed 15 January 2015. 4 www.kaunozinios.lt/titulinis/ritualinis-skerdimas-ar-tikrai-to-reikia-lietuvai-n-18_80568 .html, accessed 15 January 2015.

Public Debates

There were hardly any public debates in 2014 related to Muslim presence in Lithuania though occasional reference to, and reporting on, them did occur in national media, mainly in relation to Islamic festivals and female Lithuanians (both converts to Islam and non-Muslim) marrying foreign Muslim men. The national media in July of 2014 reported5 on an incident at the Muftiate when Muslim worshipers willing to enter the Muftiate’s prayer hall for an iftar public lecture organised by visiting Tablighi Jamaat members as part of “Ramadan Gathering of Muslims from the Baltic States” were stopped by police and asked to produce their IDs for verifĳication. Muslim representatives strongly protested against what they claimed to be religious discrimination and profĳiling, but this exceptional episode did not lead to any wider public discussion. The Lithuanian secret services had several years earlier indicated that Tablighi Jamaat’s activities in the country are under surveillance as the movement is considered “fundamentalist” and potentially radicalising. On the other hand, there were numerous articles and reports in the national media in 2014 on Islam and Muslims outside of Lithuania, the overwhelming majority of which were devoted to discussions on the relationship between Islam and violence, with ISIS (the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria)– related events receiving the largest share of attention. The presence of Muslims in Europe and their purported radicalisation were also discussed quite exten- sively, chiefly from the perspective of the perceived threat of an “Islamisation” of Europe. However, so long as there is practically no immigration to Lithuania from Asia or Africa, there is no perceived urgency to talk about Islam and Muslims in the context of immigration to Lithuania or their integration into the society. Lithuanian Muslim leaders (in the person of indigenous ethnic Tatars) as a rule shy away from the media and very rarely speak on sensitive issues; when pressed, they tend to be apologetic and non-confrontational. They are there- fore not susceptible to being dragged into possible wider prolonged public discussions by any parties in such discussions.6

5 www.lrytas.lt/-14053447991404022319-lietuvos-musulmonai-pasninkauja-policinink%C5% B3-apsuptyje.htm, accessed 15 January 2015. 6 www.balsas.lt/m/naujiena/770959/muftijus-apie-terora-radikalus-islamistai-lietuvoje-neuz sibuna, accessed 15 January 2015.

Transnational Links

Lithuanian Muslims, particularly converts, increasingly seek cooperation with their coreligionists in Latvia and Estonia through organising joint semi- nars, lectures and the like. Lithuanian Muslims are also more often visited by Muslim preachers and speakers from Western Europe. In 2014, several of these paid visits to the Muftiate premises in Vilnius and delivered public lectures on Islamic issues. Global events and processes (like the rise of ISIS) appear to have little reso- nance among Lithuania’s Muslims: the autochthonous Tatars, who comprise half of Lithuania’s Muslims, are profoundly secularised and do not sympathise with revivalist Islamic causes, let alone violent ones, and the more observant converts, made up mainly of young females, are little if at all politically agi- tated. With the immigrant component practically non-existent, Lithuanian Muslims’ relations with Muslim-majority regions are scant. On the other hand, Lithuanian Tatars do maintain quite close relations not only with their ethnic kin in neighbouring Poland and Belarus but also Tatarstan in the Russian Federation, though their interaction has less religious colour and is more about cultural and academic exchanges.

Law and Domestic Politics

As referred to above, the single major legal act afffecting Muslims in Lithuania was the passing of amendments to the Law on Welfare and Protection of Animals. Though Muslims had hitherto practised ritual slaughter of animals for private consumption, after the passing of the amendments, their traditions became legalised and no objections could be expressed by any interested parties. Moreover, the legalisation of ritual slaughter created job opportunities7 for Muslims willing to work as butchers in Lithuanian meat processing plants exporting halal meat. Additionally, the issue of halal certifĳication, as the legal regulation of Islamic ritual slaughter, has been made centralised with the Muftiate assuming responsibility for overseeing the process. In 2014, the Offfĳice of Equal Opportunities Ombudsman received several complaints concerning the rights of Muslims to practise their faith.

7 www.15min.lt/naujiena/verslas/bendroves/mesa-i-islamo-rinka-paukstynas-lietuvoje-speci aliai-samdo-musulmonus-663-465259, accessed 15 January 2015; www.delfĳi.lt/verslas/kaimas/ lietuvos-paukstyno-didziausias-issukis-is-kur-gauti-musulmona-skerdika.d?id=66447354, accessed 15 January 2015.

One complaint focused on the right of Muslims to practise their religion in Lithuanian prisons. The essence of the complaint revolved around the demand by the petitioner to be regularly visited by an imam. The administration of the prison (Lukiškės Remand Prison) had no objections to that but could not secure an imam’s commitment. Once the imam (in the person of the Mufti) agreed to visit the concerned inmate, the case was closed.8 The other complaint to the Offfĳice of Equal Opportunities Ombudsman was submitted in late 2014 on behalf of a group of parents who alleged discrimination against their children on religious grounds in kindergartens and schools which do not offfer meals acceptable to religious groups with special dietary requirements. Though the complaint was not written by or on behalf of Muslims, it did include Muslims into the category of those allegedly discrimi- nated against. With an increasing number of European Muslims travelling to Syria to fĳight on the insurgents’ side, some of Lithuania’s politicians started raising ques- tions related to anti-radicalisation and anti-terrorism measures in the second part of 2014, though no substantial discussions ensued and no legislation was proposed as of the end of 2014. Unlike in the Latvian and Estonian cases, as of the end of 2014, no Lithuanian citizens were known to have gone to fĳight in Syria or Iraq. Earlier in the year, the appeals court acquitted 24-year old Eglė Kusaitė of terrorism charges.9 A (former) convert to Islam, Kusaitė was fĳirst arrested in 2009 at Vilnius International Airport on her way to Russia where she allegedly was going to commit a suicide attack on a Russian military installation. After a prolonged court hearing, she was convicted and sentenced in 2013, however, she appealed the verdict of the lower court. Initially her case drew sustained attention by both the national media and numerous NGOs and concerned individual citizens, supporting her as a victim rather than a prospected per- petrator, but by the time of her acquittal in 2014 little reporting occurred and no discussion followed. However, the case in itself is a legal precedent likely to afffect and have impact on possible future similar cases.

8 http://lzinios.lt/lzinios/Lietuvoje/lukiskiu-kalejime-musulmonams-bus-leidziama-atlikti -religines-apeigas/190097, accessed 15 January 2015. 9 www.jihadwatch.org/2014/04/lithuania-muslima-acquitted-of-jihad-martyrdom-suicide -plot-even-though-she-expressed-intention-to-commit-jihad-murder, accessed 15 January 2015.

Activities and Initiatives of Main Muslim Organisations

The Muftiate and its daughter organisation Islamo kultūros ir švietimo centras (Islamic Cultural and Educational Centre), though best positioned (it is offfĳi- cially recognised as the representative organisation of Muslims in Lithuania and its head, the Mufti, is offfĳicially regarded as the ecclesiastical head of Muslims in the country), appear to organise few activities apart from regu- lar prayers and have surrendered the responsibility of organising Lithuanian Muslims’ religious activities to local congregations. This is true not only in Raižiai and Keturiasdešimt Totorių villages and the Western sea port city Klaipėda, but even in Vilnius. It has become a tradition in some of the Tatar communities to organise sabantuj (gathering)—a one or two-day cultural event which, among other things, has a religious dimension in the form of communal prayer and an occasional Islam-related lecture. The rest of the festivities are composed of sports, games and concerts and are open to the (non-Muslim) public. In 2014, sabantuj took place in Keturiasdešimt Totorių village and Trakai, the historical capital of Lithuania. The Union of Lithuanian Tatar Communities also organised in Vilnius the celebration of Nawruz, the traditional Iranian new year celebration at spring equinox, attended mainly by Turkic speakers—Tatars, Turks, Uzbeks—in spring 2014.10 A novel development in 2014, in relation to Muslims, was the establishment of the NGO Švietimas ir paveldas (Education and Heritage) by a group of young Muslims (mainly converts but also some young Lithuanian Tatars) in Vilnius. This NGO is devoted to both spiritual counselling for new converts and the promotion of Islam among the Lithuanian-speaking population. Throughout 2014, the organisation was active in maintaining Qur’an and Arabic language weekend classes on the premises of the Muftiate and Islamic Cultural and Educational Centre and also organised occasional public lectures. It also was instrumental in organising the “Ramadan Gathering of Muslims from the Baltic States” in July 2014, which was monitored (and indirectly disrupted) by the police who checked the attendees’ IDs. The organisation’s website islamas- visiems.lt was the sole website in 2014 regularly updating information (mainly in Lithuanian but occasionally also in English) on upcoming events.

10 http://visuomenedotcom.wordpress.com/2014/06/19/lietuvos-musulmonu-pavasario -sventeje-nev-ruz-skambejo-ir-krymo-totoriu-himnas/, accessed 15 January 2015.

Demographics and Statistics

The sole source for demographic and statistical information (though not neces- sarily very reliable) on Lithuania’s Muslim population is the offfĳicial Lithuanian Census carried out every ten years which includes a question on religion. The data of the Lithuanian Census of 2011 provides information on the age, gen- der, national background, and the geographical spread of Muslims across the country.

Muslim Population 2,727 (0.1% of population, according to 2011 census)11 Sunni Muslims. No data on Shi’is or other groups is available.

Ethnic/National The overwhelming majority of Muslims in Lithuania Backgrounds are Lithuanian citizens.

Largest ethnic/national groups: Tatar: 1,441 (52.8% of all Sunni Muslims) Lithuanian: 374 (13.7%) Russian: 73 (2.7%) Other: 794 (29.1%, made up of 157 Uzbeks, 144 Kazakhs, 93 Arabs, 88 Turks, 84 Bashkirs, 76 Chechens, 43 Tajiks, 30 Turkmen, 29 Egyptians, 19 Pakistanis, 18 Kyrgyz and 10 Afghans).

Inner-Islamic No public offfĳicial data available on other Muslim groups Groups as the published census results include only Sunni Muslims. There is, however, a more than 600 person strong Azerbaijani community and some among them could be at least nominal Twelver Shi’is. There are also several dozen Shi’i immigrants from Lebanon and Iran but there is no specifĳic Shi’i congregation and some individual Shi’is pray at the Sunni mosques.

11 Department of Statistics, Gyventojai pagal tautybę, gimtąją kalbą ir tikybą (Population by Ethnicity, Native Language, and Faith) (Vilnius: Statistikos departamentas, 2013), p. 14, https://osp.stat.gov.lt/documents/10180/217110/Gyv_kalba_tikyba.pdf/1d9dac9a-3d45 -4798-93f5-941fed00503f, accessed 15 January 2015.

The Hizmet (Gülen Movement) has a presence in the country, however, the number of its adherents (chiefly Turkish citizens) is not known. There is a small group of Inayat Khan’s Sufĳi tradition, however, they do not iden- tify themselves as Muslims.

Geographical Almost half of Lithuania’s Muslims live in the capital Spread city Vilnius (pop. 540,000) and its district, followed by the centrally located second largest city of Kaunas (pop. 340,000) and southern Alytus (both with around 13% of Muslim population) and western Klaipėda (10% of Muslim population) districts.

Number of Four purpose-built historical mosques (three wooden, Mosques built in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries,12 and one brick, built in the early 1930s) owned by local Lithuanian Tatar congregations, of which only the mosque in Kaunas (Totorių Street 6) is regularly used for Friday prayers. The other mosques, in the villages of Raižiai, Nemėžis and Keturiasdešimt totorių, are open mainly during religious festivals, although during warm seasons occasional Friday prayers take place. In addition, in the capital Vilnius there is a spacious prayer hall (and a separate space for women) at the premises of the Muftiate and Islamic Cultural and Educational Centre, which is open throughout the day. It has a Turkish state-supplied imam whose salary is paid by Diyanet. Vilnius City Municipality has offfered various plots of land for the purpose of building a mosque in Vilnius over the past decades. In 2014, negotiations between the Muslim community (in the person of the Mufti) and the city authorities remained stalled.

12 The interior of these mosques can be viewed at www.panoramas.lt/index.php?page_id =132&pan_type=242&show=yes&search_katalog=mecete, accessed 15 January 2015. For use by the Author only | © 2015 Koninklijke Brill NV Lithuania 377

Muslim Burial Sites The main burial place for Lithuanian Muslims is a sprawling cemetery in Raižiai village (Alytus district) in the south of the country. Raižiai is the location of one of the historical Tatar mosques, and this particular mosque was the only one which functioned during the Soviet period. Nemėžis (another village with a mosque) also has a cemetery which though still in use, has limited capacity. Muslims of the Western seaport city of Klaipėda have recently secured a section in the city’s public cemetery. Many Tatars, particularly the more secularised among them, however, bury their deceased in cemeteries used by people of diffferent faiths.

Places of Islamic Lithuanian Muslims still have no institutions of Learning and formal education and only run Sunday schools in both Education Kaunas and Vilnius where the basics of religion, Arabic and Turkish are taught. Hizmet has its own course programme, which, however, is only peripherally related to Islam. Lithuanian converts to Islam prefer informal study groups that regularly meet in someone’s home.

Muslim Media The sole publication produced by local Muslims is the and Publications Tatar-run monthly Lietuvos totoriai (Lithuanian Tatars) which has sections in Lithuanian, Russian and Polish. In 2014, only two issues of Lietuvos totoriai were published.

Main Muslim Organisation

– Lietuvos Musulmonų Sunitų Dvasinis Centras—Muftiatas (Spiritual Centre of the Lithuanian Sunni Muslims—Muftiate, Smolensko 19, Vilnius, headed by Mufti Romas Jakubauskas, tel.: ++370 67417710, [email protected]). In 2013, the Muftiate, jointly with the Turkish Diyanet, established a separate organisation, Islamic Cultural and Educational Centre, which formally runs the premises where its, the Muftiate’s and the Vilnius Tatar community’s offfĳices are located. The NGO Education and Heritage also bases its activities at the same premises. Other organisations of Muslims in Lithuania are local congregations controlled by Lithuanian Tatars who submit to the authority of the Muftiate and whose representatives are members of the Muftiate’s board. No rival or alternative to the Muftiate organisations have yet been established. For use by the Author only | © 2015 Koninklijke Brill NV