Identity Politics of Muslim Converts in Russia: Dominant Political and Media Discourse and Self-Representation

Abstract

This article is devoted to the phenomenon of conversion to Islam in Russia, as well as the discourses formed around it. We examine the context of the emergence of this phenomenon in the 1990s and trace the dynamics of the formation of the image of Muslim converts as “dangerous”, as well as identify the reasons for the related discourse of securitization. Using the tools of corpus linguistics, we describe some of the linguistic strategies that shape the dominant discourse about Muslim neophytes in Russia. Finally, drawing on a series of interviews with Russian Muslim converts taken in 2010-2014, we analyze how the dominant discourse on Islam influences the self-presentation of Muslim converts and how their strategy of depoliticizing religious identity is constructed.