BUILDING UP THE RUSSIAN NATIONAL IDENTITY AMONG THE STUDENTS OF ISLAMIC TEACHING INSTITUTIONS

Abstract

The article deals with an acute problem regarding the building up and the subsequent enhancing of the Russian national identity among the students of religious Islamic institutions in the Russian Federation. The problem encompasses a wide range of aspects, not at least that of the better integration of the Russian Muslim community into the modern social structure of the Russian State. The research is based upon a critical review of the relevant works, which deal with this problem. The results of this review are analyzed from the point of view expressed in the Governmental normative acts as well as curricula of Islamic universities, results obtained from various focus group studies. In the latter were taking an active part the undergraduates from the Bulgarian Islamic Academy. The conclusion stresses the necessity of detailed methodological works regarding the actual process of building up the sociocultural and political identity of the Muslim youth in Russia. This stratum of Russian society still does not possess a clearly structured model of self-identification. As a matter of fact, it becomes an obvious target group for the bodies involved in contradictory ideological discourses, which nowadays exist in the Russian Federation. Among them are those dealing with the All-Russian State identity, the Western liberal identity, ethno-regional identity, and International Muslim identity.