Lithuania

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Islamas; Lietuvos musulmonai; Lietuvos musulmonų bendruomenė; Lietuvos totoriai; Muftijus; Muftiatas; Sunitai; Religingumas; Religinis švietimas; Islam; Lithuanian Muslims; The Muslims' community of Lithuania; Lithuanian Tatars; Mufti; Muftiate; Sunnites; Religiousness; Religious education.

ENLithuanian Tatars, having nominally kept their Muslim identity, in practice were far less religiously conscious than would be generally expected of Muslims. Consequently, they appear to have had no particular need for religious authority or religious guidance and as long as they could they resisted such authority’s appearance, especially if forced on them from the outside. Once compelled, however, Lithuanian Tatars only reluctantly accepted the Crimean mufti’s authority. Of the three muftiates Lithuanian Muslims have been under, the longest period has been under the tutelage of the Taurida Mohammedan Spiritual Governing Board, which as an instrument in the hands of the state has, however, been a passive player if at all in the lives of the Lithuanian Tatars. The second period covers only a part of Lithuania, namely the Vilnius region, as it is only there that local Muslims had a formal institution in the form of muftiate, this time pragmatically founded by themselves. The establishment of the Wilno muftiate was seen by its founding fathers as a way and a means of establishing an autonomous autocephalous Muslim "church" and thus carving a breathing space for themselves in an otherwise rather staunchly Catholic country. Consequently, the local muftiate was an active player both vis-à-vis the state and the local Muslim congregations.Finally, the last period has just entered into the second decade and cannot be viewed as afait accompli but rather as an on-going process. Initiated in the spirit of the Polish era muftiate, the current one was seen by its founders, who sought to utilize and capitalize on state’s recognition of traditional communities, as a way of reasserting the bond between the Tatars and Islam and making sure it is Lithuanian Tatars who represent Islam vis-à-vis the Lithuanian state. For a time, such arrangement served both sides well - as long as the majority of Lithuania’s Muslims were seen to be Tatar, the state had no problems with viewing the two as one. However, with the situation gradually changing - the ever shrinking component of observant Tatar Muslims, the emergence of a nascent immigrant segment and an ever growing number of converts, the perceived and even institutionalized association of Islam with one ethnicity (in the form of Lithuanian Tatars) cannot be further sustained. In view of these demographic changes, the Muftiate, initially established by Tatars for Tatars, is to find its place in the community of the new composition. Mufti Jakubauskas is arguably well placed to become a connecting link between the Tatar past and the non-Tatar future of Islam in Lithuania - being a local Tatar, he has proper Islamic education acquired in an Arab country, something that is well received by both immigrant and convert Muslims.Finally, with the changing demographics and contents of Islam in Lithuania, the state will shortly have to reassess its position on Islam as a “traditional” faith in Lithuania - will it still be willing to recognize Islam as it is practised by immigrants and converts, some of whom are of revivalist (fundamentalist and Islamist) leanings as a continuation of the one traditionally practiced by indigenous Muslims - local Lithuanian Tatars? If not, new arrangements will have to be sought and the Muftiate might find itself in the middle of a tectonic shift in institutional relations between the state and Islam. If the state, however, continues with the present institutional arrangement, it (and alongside it, the Muftiate) might face a situation where people who literally have nothing to do with the historical Islam in Lithuania (hence, recognized by the state as "traditional") and even no sentiments, let alone loyalty, to that state, might, in the name of the very "traditional religious community", start pressurizing the state to grant them religious rights that have never been relevant In the Lithuanian context. Will it be then willing to accommodate them?. [Extract, p. 291-292]