The Faizrakhmanisty: The Islamic Sect as a Social Problem in Russia

In 2012, news about a police raid on the premises of an Islamic group named the Faizrakhmanisty (after its leader and initiator, Faizrakhman Sattarov) was reported across the Russian media.1 During the raid, it was said, the police found tens of children living underground in unsanitary conditions. Different versions of the story of this sect,2 which was said to be waiting for the end of the world in an isolated compound, spread rapidly throughout not only the Russian media, but also the Western media. The story of the Faizrakhmanisty brings together several topics that have been prominent in the recent political attitude toward Islam in Russia and representations of Islam in the Russian media. This chapter argues, first, that the term ‘sect’ is used frequently as an evaluative concept in the construction of certain Islamic organizations or phenomena in the Russian media. Second, it is suggested that the idea of the ‘totalitarian sect’, used in particular by ‘experts’ committed to the anti-cult stance to combat non-institutionalised or ‘non-traditional’ forms of Islam, is often introduced in the media to guide interpretations of Islam-related content. The chapter begins with a discussion about Islam, religious freedom, and media representations of religion in Russia. The first part of the analysis focuses on the ways that the term ‘sect’ is used in the Russian media by focusing on four very different phenomena that have been labeled as Islamic sects: Wahhābism, Hizb ut-Tahrir, Nurdzhular, and the National Organization of Russian Muslims (NORM). The second part of the analysis examines the case of the Faizrakhmanisty and its coverage in the media.