Islam and Mother Tongue: The Double Identity of Muslims in Bashkortostan under Conditions of Cultural Transformation

The article examines the dynamics of religious and linguistic identity among Muslims of the Republic of Bashkortostan under conditions of cultural transformation. Based on comparison of the results of these two sociological surveys of 2013 and 2020, the author revealed trends in the nature of Islamic identity and the role of mother tongue in religious socialization. Islam is increasingly acting in a symbolic, cultural form as an ethnic marker, and not as a system of ritual practice and spiritual knowledge. At the same time, the mother tongue loses its role as a tool for transmitting sacred knowledge, which leads to the Russian language becoming the dominant language in the religious sphere. Against this backdrop, stable types of double identity are formed, combining Islamic and linguistic affiliation in various proportions. The article proposes a typology of four models: synthetic (high significance of language and religious practice), Russified Islam (retention of religious identity with loss of mother tongue), cultural linguistic (language preservation with weakened religiosity), and nominal (formal affiliation with both systems). The author interprets the identified changes with the support on the concept of post-traditional and ethnic Islam, post-secular publicity and fragmented identity. The theoretical novelty of the article lies in the synthesis of the ethno- sociological and religious approaches via the prism of the language factor. The empirical significance of the article is the use of two complete field data set with a dynamic interpretation. The findings highlight that contemporary Muslim self-identification in a multiethnic and Russified environment is shaped as a flexible and adaptive system of symbolic identifications, where religion and language are increasingly acting independently of each other.

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