Lebanese Immigrants in Moscow: Development of a Religious Identity

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FEDERAL STATE AUTONOMOUS EDUCATIONAL

INSTITUTION FOR HIGHER EDUCATION

NATIONAL RESEARCH UNIVERSITY

HIGHER SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS

Faculty of Social Sciences

Master thesis

Field of study 39.04.01 Sociology

Master's program `Comparative Social Research'

Lebanese Immigrants in Moscow: Development of a Religious Identity

Smirnova Kristina Mikhaylovna

Table of Contents

Introduction

Analysis: Religious identity among Lebanese immigrants in Moscow

1. Perception of personal religion and others' religion through practice

2. Perception of personal religion in relation to other religions, locations, and politics

Conclusion

References

Appendices

religion practice relation immigrant

Introduction

Background of the research

Russia has a long history of hosting people of Arab origin that started back in the 16^th century. The Lebanese have been settling in the capital of Russia for decades, forming their communities and shaping their surroundings. They support connections both among their community and transnationally, forming one cell of a wide Lebanese diaspora. It has spread all over the world after the long-lasting Civil war of the 1975-1990, followed by a war with Israel in 2006 and a continuing conflict connected to the Syrian war. Lebanese students use quotas to come for medical, engineering and journalist education, get married and settle in Moscow and the region. Many Lebanese citizens have stayed in Russia since the USSR period due to similar ideological positions. Some come for business and trade purposes. The Lebanese organize associations, open businesses and hold national gatherings. All that considered, it is surprising that they have not received any academic attention in Russia.

The religious aspect of migrant minorities' lives is a topic that is especially acute in Russian settings. Although migration is an integral part of the Russian society, attitudes towards this phenomenon among the citizens have revealed some important social problems, mainly high levels of nationalism and xenophobia (Levada-center, 2014). The dubious attitude towards migration in the Russian society is evident not only through research institutions, but also through the media (Mukhametshina, 2017). Immigrants who observe Islam face double difficulties, since they have become an object of anti-Muslim public mood (Vishnevskaya, 2015; Sharogradskiy, 2015), in addition to the anti-migrant one (Mukhametshina, 2017). Different kinds of limitations (e.g. praying in public spaces) complicate the process of successful integration into the host society. Sometimes they face difficulties on the institutional level, when local administration refuses requests for mosques by members of Muslim communities in order to prevent the flow of Muslim migration to the region (Light, 2012). In case of Muslim immigrants in Russia, a certain dilemma appears. Islam in this country is often associated with negative experiences (“Islamic” terrorism, war in Afghanistan, deprived women), while from the Muslim perspective this religion is a fundamental part not only of morality, but all aspects of life, culture, heritage and identity (Maliepaard, 2012).

In spite of that, Russia is home for a considerable number of Muslims. Islam is the second most widely professed religion in this country after Christianity - 10% of Russian population is Muslim (Pew Research Center, May 2017) - and is supported by the state. Among the regions where Russian Muslims constitute majority are the republics of Tatarstan and Bashkortostan and the North Caucasian Federal District. Moscow is a city with notable Muslim population as well. Muslim ethnic groups were present here since the Middle Ages with Tatars as the most significant one (Khayretdinov, 2008). Nowadays, apart from over a million of unregistered Muslim people who are mostly illegal immigrants, there are approximately 300 thousand of permanent residents in Moscow. Out of 11,5 million city population, Tatars constitute 1.3%, Azerbaijanis - 0.5%, Uzbeks, Kyrgyz and Tajiks - from 0.5 to 0.2% correspondingly (Potocki, 2017). There are four mosques and 15 houses of worship (Abdrakhmanov, 2016).

Although it is commonly considered that Muslims of the whole world are united under one Islamic community called ummah (Waldman & Zeghal, 2009), interpretations of this religion vary from one region to another, and Russian provinces are not an exception. In Russia, there is a discourse about its “traditional”, customary Islam, that predominated here before the fall of the Soviet Union (like Hanafism, Shafiism, etc.), against “foreign” forms of Islam, mostly Salafism, Wahhabism, that are more generally defined by Islamism (Malashenko, 2013). Indigenous Russian Muslims who have been historically inhabiting Moscow and some other regions oppose themselves to these new tendencies (Merati, 2017).

In the settings described above, the case of Muslim Lebanese in Moscow is of a special interest, since Lebanon is also a multiconfessional country with different forms of Islam and Christianity. It is the most religiously diverse country in the Middle East (Dralonge, 2008). Historically, there has been approximately the same proportion of Muslim and Christian citizens. In the modern era, it has representatives of all main confessions among the members of high-ranking offices: the president is a Maronite Christian, the prime minister is Sunni Muslim, the speaker of the parliament is Shia Muslim, etc. The Lebanese are much less conservative than their neighbors like Jordan. Considering that, it would be fruitful to explore how they construct their religious identity in the surroundings of Moscow.

The research questions of my research are: How do Lebanese migrants or members of the Lebanese community in Russia live and understand their religion? How do they view their religious practice and beliefs in relation to the two places of Lebanon and Russia? What is their perception of religion and how is it influenced or not by their migration experience?

Muslim diasporas and religious identity

There is a broad body of literature that focuses on Muslim communities in Russia's capital, both indigenous and migrant.

To better understand the religious context of Moscow, it is useful to consider a study by M. Safarov (2015) that revealed current religious practices and the ethno-confessional situation of Tatars in Moscow. Encyclopedia Islam in Moscow (2008) accumulates exhaustive details on the stated topic, shedding light on its history and modern times, organizations, main figures and mosques. A geographically wider perspective on Russian Muslims is given by Simona Merati in her monograph Muslims in Putin's Russia (2017), but can be narrowed down to the level of a single city. In a separate chapter she describes the identity of Russian Muslims that is formed as a result of the relationship with the state in each historical period, geopolitics of the country, as well as the relationship between Orthodox Christianity and Islam.

Varshaver and Rocheva (2014) have made a contribution on revealing and describing numerous migrant ethnic communities in the settings of this city, including those that are shaped on the basis of Islam. The authors develop a special framework for studying migrants in Moscow. Unlike in cities of Western Europe, the US, Australia, as well as pre-revolutionary Russian population aggregates, where immigrants settle in specific areas, immigrants in Moscow do not form neighborhoods. Following the logic of non-territorial conceptualization of communities and adding concepts of norms and network, Varshaver and Rocheva reveal that immigrant communities in Russia's capital are based on joint visitations of “ethnical” cafes more than settling in certain areas. The authors employed observations and interviews to describe several types of communities, of which homeland-rooted (not ethnic) and Muslim poly-ethnic are of a special interest in this paper. Homeland-rooted communities include immigrants who identify with the same area, and Muslim poly-ethnic consist of pious Muslims. Characteristics of these community types help to properly discover the Lebanese community in the first stage of my research.

Issues concerning Muslim migration inside Russia are addressed in Migration, `Globalised Islam' and the Russian state (Light, 2012). This study is interesting due to the choice of settings: M. Light turns to Muslim communities in historically non-Muslim provinces, where these people face difficulties based on their religious affiliation. He also discusses the issue of `globalised' Islam, that is “above” ethnic characteristics of its observers in identity construction.

Although being comprehensive and valuable, the studies described above only focus on minorities from several Russian regions and Central Asia, leaving behind Muslims from the countries that are further from Russia not only in terms of distance, but also culture, historical connections and political relations. Arab communities of Moscow have never been studied, not to mention Muslim Lebanese.

The present research aims to contribute to the literature on Muslim diasporas in Russia. It also will add to the existing studies on the interrelation between migration and religious identity. Such studies shed light on the influence of religion on immigrants' settlement and setting connections in a host environment. It provides theoretical framework and concepts for the research on migrant religious minorities. Herberg (1955) with his study Protestant-Catholic-Jew has set the ground for exploring the topic of religion and minority integration. The research was supported by Dolan (1983), Alba et al. (2008), Hirschman (2004) and many others. Some of the main works on the role of religion in the lives of immigrants to the United States are those by Cadge and Ecklund (2007), Hagan and Ebaugh (2003). The listed works have presented studies on how immigrants integrate into the host society or become excluded from it, how they adjust, and how the religious identity is formed in each separate country, mostly the US. Research on the influence of external ties of the minority immigrants, in particular the networks with the countries of origin, was made by Ebaugh and Chafetz (2000), Levitt (2009), Bramadat and Koenig (2009).

This body of literature mostly addresses the issue of Muslim migrants as opposed to the host society. Generally having a strong religious identity or coming from Muslim majority states, they face difficulties adapting to the secular environment of Western countries. Unlike the US and Western Europe, Russia has historically been home to Islam observers for over ten centuries, which makes it a slightly different case. According to some commentators, Islam in Russia is even more “accepted” than Catholicism due to the competition between the latter and Orthodoxy to save Christianity (Merati, 2017). On the other hand, in comparison to Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan or Azerbaijan, Lebanon is clearly multiconfessional state that comprises 18 state-recognized religious sects (Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, 2010) and has historically hosted approximately the same share of Muslims and Christians. These two facts make the research on the Lebanese immigrants in Moscow even more interesting and valuable for the study of religion identity construction in connection to migration.

Some research has been conducted on various characteristics of Lebanese diasporas outside of the Middle Eastern region. Tastsoglou & Petrinioti (2011) have shown the process of identity negotiation of the Lebanese youth in Canada; Humphrey (1998) dwelled on the religious sphere of life of the Lebanese immigrants in Australia; Ajrouch & Kusow (2007), Ajrouch (2000) touched the issue of racial and religious contexts of identity formation among the Lebanese in the US. The study will try to fill an existing gap on the Lebanese living in Russia, as a small part of this widespread diaspora stretching from North America to Africa to Australia.

Religious identity is a useful concept to explore religious life, since it reflects an individual's view of himself, his or her interpretation of his religion. A useful definition of identity theory is provided by Peek (2005, 217): “Identity theory attempts to link the individual conception of self and the larger social structure within which the individual thinks and acts”. It has been discussed in previous studies that social identity changes over time in reaction to external events, settings, age and a number of other factors (Dillon, 1999; Haddad, 1994; Nagel, 1995). The process of identity construction and negotiation was covered in Cahill (1986), Nagel (1994), Waters (1990).

Among the most prominent scholars who focused on religious identity is Erikson, who connected this concept with the ego identity (1968). He stated that religious identity is very important in identity development because religion offers salient ideologies to adopt (Erikson, 1968). Following Griffith and Griggs (2001), I define religious identity development as a process in which individuals explore and commit to a set of religious beliefs and practices. According to several authors, religious identity plays an important role in formation of ethnic and social identities, especially for immigrants (Ebaugh, & Chafetz, 2000; Haddad, & Lummis, 1987). In case of the latter, it may even dominate over the ethnic one (Yang & Ebaugh, 2001).

O. Roy has found that the rise of religious identity over other identity types is connected to the changing form of Islam from a global perspective. While previously religious identity was based on local customs and world views of certain ethnic communities, nowadays it relies on communication between Muslims regardless of their actual location. The communication becomes possible thanks to modern technologies and new possibilities of travel in a globalized world. Therefore, there is a change in living and understanding religion (Roy, 2004). This observation really corresponds with the concept of ummah (supra-national Muslim community) that has been inherent in Islam for centuries, but apparently has received a new understanding.

L. Peek in her work Becoming Muslim: The Development of a Religious Identity (2005) suggests several other reasons for religious identity emphasis among immigrants. The first one is that immigration itself is often a theologizing experience. Immigrants, when exposed to alien environments, tend to concentrate around religious institutions that are familiar to them, thus re-establishing common cultural and social activities (Kurien, 1998). This is true for the first-generation immigrants who search for support in an outlet from the other that they have to encounter on a daily basis. For the present research, it is also important to mention immigrants who come from societies where they constituted a religious majority and where religion was taken for granted into societies where they appear to be a minority. In this case, religion becomes of a greater importance and may even prevail over ethnic identity (Peek, 2005). This is confirmed by other authors who studied Muslim migration to the Western states. Ajrouch & Kusow (2007) have shown this process of identity development among Somali Muslims in Canada, who build identities based on Muslim identity categories rather than race or ethnicity. Laurence and Vaisse (2006) addressed identity construction among young second-generation Muslim immigrants in France and revealed that it is built around transnational Islam community more than certain ethnic groups.

The second reason proposed is that a common religion among immigrants also eases material, financial, educational connections inside a community and becomes a considerable factor for building social capital (Coleman, 1988). With the increase of social benefits, it is more likely for immigrants to religiously affiliate.

Religious expression helps to overcome tensions that may arise between representatives of different backgrounds. It was proven in Peek's work that in the case of Islam, its observers placed religious identity on a higher level after 9/11, trying to unite on a basis of religion against an oppression that a lot have encountered. In this case, they claimed not to pay attention to any other distinguishing features of one's background.

Peek's research is also valuable because she discovers and describes three stages of religious identity development: religion as ascribed identity, religion as chosen identity, and religion as declared identity. Looking at this process from a slightly different angle, it is possible to divide identity development into two stages: exploration and commitment that combine and form four statuses: achievement, moratorium, foreclosure and diffusion, as proposed by Marcia (1966, 1980). Exploration means the process of choosing an identity from a number of alternatives. Commitment is assuming an identity. When a person consciously combines these two stages and acquires an identity as a result, the status of achievement occurs. It corresponds with Peek's notion of chosen identity. Moratorium defines a process of exploration with unclear commitments. Foreclosure is similar to Peek's ascribed identity, when a person does not explore, but rather adopts a religious identity with a commitment present. Finally, diffusion is the weakest stage that defines a situation when exploration is very superficial and commitment is absent.

It may be useful to take into consideration both theories in order to analyze religious identity among Lebanese Muslims in Moscow. It is especially interesting to apply the concept of religion as a declared identity, suggested by Peek, to the context of Muslim immigrants in Moscow. Declared religious identity forms as a response to major threats from the majority to the minority, as Muslims endured after 9/11 in the USA. Although Muslim minority is not as likely to overcome the same hardships as did American Muslims a decade ago, observers of Islam in Moscow also experience tensions and threats from the majority.

Methodology and empirical research

Social scientists often look at religious identity as a developing internal story that a person formulates to him or herself on different life stages (Erikson, 1968, McAdams, 1985, Marcia, 1980). Therefore choosing unstructured, open-ended interview as a means of data collection seems the most appropriate way to stimulate formulation and presentation of informant's life story. An attempt is made to acquire narrative-rich data to reveal processes of religious identification. Another reason for employing this method is the exploratory nature of my research, since there is no data and no previous studies on the chosen topic.

The sample consists of 8 informants. Selection criteria for the interview participants were the following. All informants are:

· Muslims (both Sunni and Shia) of Lebanese origin;

· first generation immigrants in Moscow;

· stayed in Moscow for at least 2 years;

· 18 y.o. and older.

Initial recruitment of participants was conducted through a key contact at the Lebanese embassy in Moscow. Another way to find connections was through People's Friendship University of Russia (RUDN), where there is an Arab community and a Lebanese zemlyachestvo - a homeland-rooted association. After finding first interviewees, I relied on a snowball sample technique (Biernacki & Waldorf, 1981) to find access to more participants.

The final sample consists of: 4 males and 4 females of ages from 29 to 50, half Sunni and half Shia. All but one female are housewives while all males are employed. The minimum period of residency in Russia is 5 years; the maximum is 30 years, with women mostly staying for a shorter period than men.

Face-to-face in-depth interviews help to examine views and attitudes as parts of religious identification. I tried to encourage narration by asking firstly a generating question and directing the topic with short and clear follow-up questions, allowing my informants to reveal the most important aspects of their religiosity. I did not ask about the topic of religion from the start in order to find out whether they mention this topic spontaneously and how. It was important to give them a chance to narrate their own religious experiences and opinions. The key questions were based on Vogel's (2015) interview protocol that she had adjusted to her study using Marcia's Identity Status Interview model (Marcia et al., 1993) and McAdam's (2005) “Faith, Politics and the Life Story” protocol. On my part, I have altered Vogel's guideline by a) making the questions broader to give the informants more space; b) adding a comparative perspective; c) eliciting questions that only encourage narrative-rich answers (the original guideline presupposed a more standardized approach). The main language of interviews was selected after preliminary observations and informants' preferences. In the case of bilingual participants, Russian language was preferable as the one that was better shared between the two sides. As a result, interviews were held in Russian, English and Arabic.

The interviews were audiotaped and then transcribed. In addition to that, I produced a pre-written interview protocol according to strategies outlined by Creswell (2007) and filled it in while interviewing to prevent failures with recording equipment.

After transcribing interviews, the data was coded. Since I intended to reveal prominent themes, all transcripts were systematically worked through and coded line by line. As it is advised by Tesch (1990), I sorted emerging topics into major, unique and `leftovers', and then used codes attached to them to code the rest of the documents, also paying attention to possible new codes. Revealed codes were then turned into categories, which were also coded in the end to perform interpretation. The themes and categories emerged from the research itself rather than from the previously examined literature. Therefore the analysis approach is inductive.

Since recalling past experiences is subjected to different types of distortion, the collected data may not represent the exact meanings that the informant used to associate with his religious identity in the past. Here I agree with Kroger (2007) that one's reality is constructed and there is no single “objective truth”. However, what is important and what deserves attention is how the informants perceive these past experiences now in the new setting of Moscow, how they select previous events in order to represent their current religious identity. I examine how they compare past religious experiences and their religious identity to their experiences in Moscow. I also analyze how they talk about the two settings in comparison and how they talk about religious experiences among their network of friends and family members in both places.

There is no doubt that it is quite a challenging time to be conducting research with Arab Muslims in Moscow. European scholars note that recent Islamophobia after 9/11 had a negative impact on perception of researchers as `predators' and on developing mistrust towards them (Bolognani, 2007). There was an expectation that the same problem may occur when trying to establish rapport with participants in Moscow. Recent developments in the Middle East, including emergence of ISIS and other radical Islamist groups seems to have affected the perception of Arabs in Moscow, especially those observing Islam. This situation is likely to complicate the process of building trust in the same way as it has been in Western countries. Moreover, it may require excessive self-disclosure, or excessive confiding from the side of the interviewer, which is not desirable for the process of research. Particular attention should be paid to gentle impression management.

However, a status of a researcher as an outsider is also expected to have positive consequences. Being non-Muslim and non-Arab will encourage participants to explain religious and cultural peculiarities more clearly and in more details. This way a lot of moments of their religious life will not be taken for granted, which may reveal new perspectives.

Another obstacle to conducting the research lies in the fact that no preliminary investigation was made on the Arab communities in Russia's capital. There is no official data on exact numbers and locations, and they are not a single locale. One solution to that is using a snowball technique that I started to employ after conducting the first interview.

Due to a certain insecurity and instability that Arab immigrants may encounter in Moscow, it is especially important to comply with ethical rules. This does not only aim at following basic research ethics, but also solve the mentioned problem of building trust. In this research, I made sure that my informants participated on a voluntary basis and maintained anonymity, which they were notified of beforehand. They were told about the aim of the research and the general background of the researcher, making sure he understood my incentives. Field issues such as respect and reciprocity with the participants were considered. Any offensive, discriminatory or other unacceptable language was avoided and the highest level of objectivity in discussions and analyses was pursued.

Analysis: Religious identity among Lebanese immigrants in Moscow

1. Religion through practices

When talking about Islam and being Muslims, interviewees mentioned a few activities or attributes through which they lived their religiosity. The analysis of the way they talk about these activities or attributes show certain differences or similarities in the way they live and view their religion in the two settings of Lebanon and Moscow.

Many interviewees express attribution to Islam by recurring references to dress code, forbidden/allowed actions, praying, fasting, and pilgrimage. Observance of the last three practices is a part of the five pillars of Islam - religious acts that are considered obligatory among Muslims. The five pillars include pronouncing the declaration of faith (shahada), praying five times a day (salat), fasting during the month of Ramadan (saum), performing a pilgrimage to Mecca (hajj), and giving alms (zakat). Pronouncing a declaration of faith was only mentioned twice in the interviews - it is not a regular practice and can only be performed once. Giving alms is not considered when talking about religious life. In the following paragraphs, I will discuss the most common practices through which the Lebanese define religiosity.

Dressing is probably the most visible manifestation of being Muslim. It is the practice that is mentioned most frequently when it comes to stating one's religiosity and just describing a person. Being asked to portray her family, Jasmeen starts by:

“We're Muslims. My mom is wearing… [shows photos] See, that's my mom, that's my dad. She's wearing only [a headscarf]… Not the black one, you know that black one [niqab - a black type of cloth covering all the head and the body]. And that's my mother-in-law and father-in-law. She doesn't wear it [a scarf], and she's Muslim, too” (Jasmeen, f.).

Like in this quote, informants often relate gradations in religiosity to types of corresponding clothes. Hijab is usually an attribute of conventional Islam, niqab is an indication of excessive religiosity. According to some informants, hijab is often an attribute of older people: some of their older relatives have been wearing it since their childhood in more conservative surroundings, some start wearing a headscarf when reaching a certain age:

“Here is my sister. She used to be just like you: hair, everything. She got married, her husband told her to cover up. Not because he is religious - he is real, not religious. But it's kind of fashionable. You got married and have to hide, be just for me. She hadn't worn a hijab before. But ageing, because of some fears, because of children, a person gets closer to god, starts listening to some ridiculous [ideas]… Here is my sister, here is her daughter [sister wears hijab, daughter wears short clothes]. Look, how she is dressed. Now look at her daughter. Having got older she [sister] [turned] to religion. [At this stage] They start searching how to do things according to religion: how to do this, how to do that” (Kareem, m.).

Absence of religious clothes is mostly accepted and declared as the most approved option among the informants. None of female participants claimed to wear it neither in Russia nor in Lebanon. I also did not notice any visual religious attributes among men. Faris explains why he does not have religion based conflicts in his family: “In my bigger family no one wears headscarves, absolutely no one” (Faris, m.).

Although dressing is a gendered practice among Lebanese conventional Muslims (only highly religious male observers wear beards and religious clothing), there seems to be no discrepancy in its perception between men and women. It is important, however, that my informants only used this characteristic to describe others. They did not relate closely to this practice personally, and did not mention it when talking about their own religiosity in any stage of its development. While women did not describe themselves as wearing or not wearing a hijab in public, men did not talk about their wives or daughters in this context. Dressing mostly referred to religiosity in Lebanon: either one's family or the society.

“You know, there's a place in Beirut called Dahyeh, like Ïîäìîñêîâüå here, but it's almost all are Muslims and almost all are Shia. I'm Shia, too, so that's why I'm talking about them. And in Dahyeh, almost all, maybe 80% of women wear hijab [a scarf] or all the black one [covering all the body].” (Jasmeen, f.).

The observations about dressing as a marker of a religious life shows that the interviewees insist on the diversity that is inherent in Lebanon where Muslims may or may not wear religious clothing. They demarcate themselves from more ostentatious religious clothing like niqab. They are not quite convinced by the choice of certain family members to wear the hijab, but rationalize it as linked to age. In discussing their family, they tend to emphasize the diversity and the possibility of choosing that is in their view characteristic for Lebanon. The remark about the particular neighborhood in the Lebanese capital also shows this diversity.

A Muslim prayer salat is another frequent practice that was used by the Lebanese to identify religiosity. Unlike clothing, a prayer is used as an indication of personal religiosity. Answering a question about what she does for her religion in Moscow, Marwa (f.) says: “Mostly I pray five times a day. My husband works outside of our home, so he doesn't have a lot of opportunities to pray. I am more free in this way”.

A prayer allows her to practice her religion in a fuller form than her husband, being in a private space most time of her regular day. It is crucial that in Islam, prayers may be performed by men in both private and public: at home, in mosques, on the streets, at work places, etc. As for women, they do not pray in public and are not obliged to pray in mosques if they prefer to stay home. Public spaces inside mosques, however, are separated based on gender: there is usually a separate hall for women that is further from the main male zone. It is common for Arab women to still pray at home.

Just like Marwa, Lebanese women demonstrate a clear tendency to practice the Muslim pillar of salat. Nisma (f.) describes this practice in Moscow as not very different from that in Lebanon: “When I studied at the University of Beirut, I lived at the dormitory with my friend. I came home maybe once a month, so most time I stayed by my own. So yeah, I studied, I came to my dorms, cooked myself lunch, did some homework, you know, talked to the family. Of course, I prayed when the time was coming. Maybe, twice a day. Just like here, but here I just stay home all day long, except when I take kids from school”. Women claimed to pray more often also because they spent home a considerably higher amount of time than men. Since the private space is similar in both settings, they do not need to adjust the religious practice of praying to the new setting. For them it is a religious practice that is not visible in the public space, (by contrast to wearing hijab) and can be easily performed.

The context of Lebanon allows Muslim men to feel free to practice prayers in any place. Amir (m.) is excited to present his home practices that are so different from the environment he currently lives in: “If you come to my country, you will see men laying their prayer mats in markets, by their shops on the streets. Can you imagine?” Salat in Lebanon is practiced both collectively and individually. Amir continues: “When there's a call for prayer, people can just pray wherever they are. Once we even prayed at the beach. But it was just once. We took our jackets off and laid them on the ground. It has to be something clean, that's it”. In Russia, however, the situation is different. Although there are mosques where it is common to attend prayers, whether for the most important Friday salats or special events like Eid al-Adha, the Lebanese men tend to prefer homes and pray there just like women do. Therefore this public and collective practice shifts into a private and individual one in Russia “The mosque is close, but he [husband] works in the daytime for certain periods. That's why he doesn't go there. He prays at home. He comes, greets me and goes to pray right away. He's very comfortable and open-minded” (Zahra, f.). Even Amir, who is the only male informant visiting Russian mosques, does it “from time to time…. Mostly when something special happens in life. But not often”.

The prayer practice of men shows that there may be a certain shift to the private space away from the public or religious space in the Islamic practice. There is a preference for the private space.

There may be several explanations for this preference. Mosque audience in Moscow is dominated by people of different origin than Arabs and the Lebanese in particular. Interviews did not reveal any connection between them and other Muslims of Moscow, like Tatars, Bashkirs, people from the Caucasus or the Central Asia. On the contrary, my informants stated that they “do not know anything about them [Tatars or Caucasians] in general” or, in the case of Shia, told that the religion of local Sunni people is “stricter”. Indeed, when turning to the local Muslim identity, it gets clear that Russian Muslim authorities distance traditional Islam in Russia from that of Saudi Arabia, which claims to be a “home of Islam” (Bradley, 2005) and the Middle East in general. Russian Muslims try to defend the legitimacy of their customary religious practices (Merati, 2017). Despite the popular concept of an ummah that unites all Muslims of the whole world under one community, it does not seem to work for Muslims of different cultural (or political) backgrounds. Therefore, as an ethnic minority that is accustomed to a different form of Islam and its different interpretation, the Lebanese may avoid attending mosques even for special celebrations.

Another possible explanation is that the Lebanese who come to Moscow are initially less eager to practice Islam in public. It was revealed during an interview with a consular specialist that migrants from Lebanon tend to separate their religious and professional spheres of life upon their migration to Russia. They view Russia as a place for career development:

“They came here not for the sake of religion. They came here, they live here… Those who want to pray, pray at their homes, not on the street. It is invisible … Russia is an Orthodox country. People from Lebanon do not come here to play these religious games: who am I and who are you. I came to study, I have an aim - to study and to go back. There are two options: either I stay because I've found a job, a life, a wife, etc. Or to go back. If a Lebanese person comes here, he does not look for a friend of the same religious views” (Kareem, m.).

Religion is not supposed to be manifested in public, it should not be visible.

There are also Lebanese men who did not pray at all in neither of the settings. They perceive true religion as the one that does not require practice: “I don't need any mediation, I can communicate with God directly” (Faris, m.). It is evident from their narrative, that religion is seen more as transcendent. For them, there was no change in the two settings.

While there is a difference between male and female salat experiences in Lebanon and Russia, articulated by my respondents, there is another type of praying practice that does not presuppose gendered spaces, is not connected to either of the two locations, and is always public. Praying at shrines (or maqams) is only performed by Shia Muslims and includes visiting sacred places connected to the lives of prominent Shia imams. Unlike salats at mosques, praying at maqams is not separated based on gender: both men and women are allowed to enter these places and pray together. According to a female Shia informant, who had never prayed in a mosque, the practice of visiting shrines is more vivid than praying in her private space of home: “I forgot everything. You forget the rest of the world, forget yourself, you just come there and pray. It was really really nice. Very nice.” (Zahra, f.). Praying at maqams is described by mostly female Shia Lebanese informants as a notable event that spiritually enriches them. It is one of the most important practices through which their religious identity becomes highly evident.

Praying at shrines is not clearly related to Lebanon and Moscow in the sense that the pilgrimage takes place in another country (Iraq). As noted by the interviewee, she “forgot everything”, “the rest of the world”. It appears as if the pilgrimage brings religious people to a transcendental place away from any physical location.

Fasting during the month of Ramadan is another common practice through which Lebanese Muslims identify themselves and their social surroundings. When asked to describe his family, Amir (m.) says: “My parents are not that religious. We [the children] just lived as we wanted to, no one told us to pray all day long or… But we pray sometimes and we fast.”

Ramadan is a special event among Muslims, which is held during the whole lunar month of the same name. Although being a fast, it is perceived as a major holiday that includes gatherings after the sunset, visiting friends and relatives for an evening meal iftar, congratulating each other with the holy month. Just like the practice of praying, fasting in Lebanon and in Russia may be viewed through the lens of collective-individual. Many female informants have paid attention to the differences between fasting in Ramadan in their home and host countries. Zahra (f.) describes her experience in Lebanon as an entirely collective practice:

“In Lebanon, Allah, in Lebanon! Every year when Ramadan comes… We sleep, then the morning comes, those who study go to school, then we come back, prepare iftar [evening meal during Ramadan], then have it, come together, smoke hookah with my friends and my sisters' friends… Of course, we also have iftar together. We smoke, and there's a party all the way till the suhur [an early morning meal in Ramadan]... So all of us eat, of course pray, and then go to sleep. And that's all month long. We also go to see our relatives.”

In Russia, fasting is performed solitarily and inside one family: “It's different because here you make it alone. During, for example, Ramadan. You fast alone, you eat alone” (Jasmeen, f.). Although there are possibilities for collective feasts, the Lebanese do not seem to use them, preferring to stay in privacy with the closest family members. Marwa (f.) describes the Ramadan routine as performed only with the husband: “But of course, in Lebanon it's with all the family, and here it's only me and my husband. Sometimes we eat iftar [the evening meal] at the restaurant. R. and N. join us very rarely, maybe not even once, they have small children”.

Men mostly mention the practice to describe others' religiosity in the context of their home environment. Observing the fast is not seen either as a personal spiritual experience or as a collective feast, but a short-spoken indication of one's ordinary religious views: “In my big family there are four-five guys, they fast and that's it.” (Faris, m.).

Permissible (halal) and forbidden (haram) are categories that describe two levels of obedience to Allah, apart from obligatory, recommended but not essential, neither obligatory nor recommended, and abstaining is recommended. Haram and halal are widely used by my male informants when explaining their views and actions regardless of their experience in either of two locations. They applied these categories to such practices as drinking alcohol, eating pork, having extramarital sexual relations, wearing short clothes by women. Although these actions definitely fall under the category of haram (which is generally acknowledged in Islam), the Lebanese treat them more as the category of “abstaining is recommended” or do not view them as forbidden at all. Talking about why Islam is considered strict, Hussein (m.) confesses: “For example, if I drink a bit of wine right now… I think that, even if I pray, my opinion is that it's ok.” He explains it by the fact that Allah cannot know about each person whether or not he can control himself, thus these rules had to be employed. He acknowledges, however, that “Alcohol in Islam is haram, right?” Admitting religious prohibition, it seems that he distances himself from these rules. However, giving an explanation about Allah, he is developing his interpretation of drinking alcohol by giving arguments based on Islam and not on secular ideas. He does not exceed the bounds of the religious discourse.

Avoiding forbidden actions is viewed as excessive religion: “Of course, I have always been religious, I have believed in God and Allah, yes. I have never reached things like “this is forbidden”, “that is forbidden” or growing a beard, I'm not like that” (Hussein, m.). Another case of reflection on this issue is presented in the following passage: “Like, for example, I have always had this question: if you consider yourself a Muslim, how do you let yourself, for instance, drink alcohol, eat pork, sleep with girls, but don't let yourself eat pork? It's the same: this is haram and that is haram.” (Faris, m.). Faris perceives these practices as carrying the same weight of obedience to God. Categories of haram and halal are used to identify “true” religiosity among his peers. However, just like some other informants, he does not attribute them to his personal religious life.

Kareem (m.) discusses alcohol consumption and dress code within his family in Lebanon: “Here's my daughter. What type of Muslim is she? See? And another Muslim man wouldn't allow his daughter to wear shorts, swimming suits, etc. See how she's dressed? She's a European! Here we're at the river. Lebanese. Jump, run, drink vodka even more than in Russia”. For him, being Muslim does not mean observing such forms of obedience to God. He distances himself from complying with traditional Muslim constraints.

Women tend to use these terms to describe others. They often compare their home culture to the host one without positioning themselves clearly in these questions. Dress code and premarital sex are two most discussed topics in this context. Marwa (f.) says: “For example, here (sorry I want to say it) the girl who is not married can make relationships with men. In Lebanon, it is impossible, forbidden, haram.” She then describes in detail how it is possible to arrange a “relationship” legally in Lebanon, and finishes by “But here it's more open-minded. There's no difference both for a woman and a man”. Female informants did not mention whether or not they comply with the haram/halal rules themselves. They rather talked about them in the abstract: “There's our god and he decides for what a person does, if he prays or not, if he fasts, if he drinks alcohol. It's our god, not us” (Zahra, f.). Neither did they relate these rules to their closest ties or relatives.

Hajj or pilgrimage to Mekka is a necessary activity that every able Muslim believer has to complete, according to the authoritative source of hadith. Since doing a hajj is not as obligatory as praying and fasting (it does not have a time indication except for a month name and should be done only by those who have a financial and physical possibility), it was mentioned as an “additional” practice that is desirable. Hajj is a practice that adds to the life experience of an individual. When describing her mother, Jasmeen (f.) said: “She's older, so she knows more, I think. She went to hajj.” Accomplishing hajj equals to gaining wisdom.

Apart from hajj, other types of pilgrimage were mentioned. Umrah in Islam is a minor pilgrimage to Mekka that is accomplished in any other month than hajj. It did not receive much attention in the informants' speech. However, there appeared to be some peculiarities related to Sunni and Shia practice. Visiting a religious national holiday in Iraq called Ashura was brought up by female Shia informants. This religious event is described as highly spiritual to them. Such practices as visiting shrines, praying at many places for ten days, wearing more religious clothes were referred to:

“You go to maqams, visit them and pray… There are a lot of places to visit and pray at there. It lasts for ten days, and for ten days day and night you pray and say dua, pray and say dua. Of course, there are men who go out as well, walk and eat, but when you come to a religious site - it's forbidden. You also have to wear an abayya [a black dress covering all the body]” (Nisma, f.).

Apart from common practices, the informant also mentions differentiation of religious and non-religious spaces through the category of forbidden, or haram. Earthly matters are separated from the sacred space.

2. Religion in relation to other religions and locations

Members of the Lebanese community in Moscow construct their religious identity in relation to other religions and locations. It is revealed through comparisons of one's views and practices to branches of Islam (Shiism, Sunnism) and Christianity; as well as relations to various regions inside Lebanon and outside of it in the Middle East. They also tend to link religion to politics, both inside their home region and more globally.

It was noticed that the informants have two types of attitudes towards the Sunni and Shia differentiation. The majority of them have expressed tolerance to the “opposite” branch or even did not articulate any distinction and often put them in one row when talking about religion. It was especially visible among female Shia informants: “As for our house, there's no difference. My sister is married to a Sunni. Neither my mom nor my dad were against” (Nisma, f.).

In such cases, religion is viewed as united; it does not differ from one confession to another. It is beyond any formal divisions: “Shiism is nice, Islam is nice. There are many people who talk about Sunni and Shia, but it's the same thing. Both say Allahu Akbar, both say Muhammad is the messenger of Allah” (Zahra, f.).

Personal qualities are also viewed above religious differences: "I don't care. I have lots of Sunni friends. You know, it's about a person, not about religion. If the person is good, he's nice, right?" (Jasmeen, f.).

Another way of looking at the Shia-Sunni division was shown by male Shia informants: “Sunnis are different. They are all about “this is forbidden”, “that is forbidden”, “don't greet this person”, “don't sit this way”, “don't eat this way”, “the Prophet said” (Hussein, m.). Here, the difference between Sunnism and Shiism is indicated through the category of haram (forbidden actions) and halal. Sunnism is understood as a “stricter” branch of Islam. Personal religion is usually described as “cool”: “You know, I'm not very traditional… That's why… I mean, I'm cool: I fast, I pray and I don't lie a lot. Sometimes, we should lie. I don't do bad things to someone else. That's the religion, I think” (Jasmeen, f.). Therefore, religious views may be positioned on the scale from “constrained” to “relaxed”, and these extremes are formed based on the attitudes towards own and other religions.