Ethnic Muslims and the “Halal Movement” in Tatarstan

The ‘halal movement’ is an orientation predominantly mobilised by urban youth and by the emerging urban middle class in Tatarstan. It articulates a cosmopolitan, universal Islamic discourse, explicitly separates ethnicity and Muslimness, and stages religion as an ethical issue, tied neither to a nation nor to a theological doctrine. This group is compared and contrasted to 'ethnic Muslims,' whose understanding of Islam frames it as an ancestral 'essence' shared by members of a national community.