According to the 2010 Report on International Religious Freedom by US Department of State, while Orthodox Christianity is adhered by the majority of the Ukrainians, it is estimated that there are about two million Muslims living in Ukraine, constituting 4.25 percent of the total population. Islam is far from monolithic in Ukraine, where there are six registered Islamic Administrative Directorates (Muftiyats). Although they all belong to the Sunni branch, these administrations represent different interpretations of Islam, do not cooperate with one another, challenge each other’s legitimacy, and fail to present a unified front. As this internal fragmentation grows further, their competing narratives pave the way for a vacuum of perplexity, in which a number of independent Islamic groups - such as the Salafis, Hizb-Ut Tahrir al Islami (Party of Liberation), and offshoots of Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood continue to expand. My research, which is based on numerous interviews with the majority of the Muftiyats as well as the leaders/members of other independent fundamentalist groups, investigates the religious ideologies, modes of operation, and the short and long-term goals of these diverse Islamic factions within the Ukrainian context. It also examines the emergence of some of the imported ideologies in Ukraine and explores if and how they are linked to transnational Islamic movements of the globe. Finally, the research offers policy recommendations for the US as well as the Ukrainian policy makers.
Idil P. Izmirli, of George Mason University, was a 2011-2012 Short-Term Travel Grants (STG) [8] fellow.
