Halal Headaches: Post-Cultural Islam in Tatarstan

This contribution discusses contemporary halal practices in Tatarstan through the lens of culture, or rather its fragmentation in a post-secular, post-Durkheimian world. It argues that halal provides pious Muslims with a matrix for the harmonization of multiple "spheres of value and experience," rendered increasingly disjoined by secularization processes, under a coherent religious paradigm. Such process of reunification is not, however, without its headaches. This chapter details the difficulties and paradoxes inherent in this effort, alongside the spiritual and ethical gratifications that reward committed halalists.