Minority within a minority: Shia community in Ukraine
Ukraine is one of the largest countries in Europe and there is a significant Muslim minority here, among which there are several Shia communities. Aspects of the life and activities of the Shia community in Ukraine are almost unexplored. Although at the same time a number of studies were devot...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
2021
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| Online Access: | http://journalarticle.ukm.my/16928/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/16928/1/IJIT-Vol-19-June-2021_2_14-20.pdf |
| Summary: | Ukraine is one of the largest countries in Europe and there is a significant Muslim
minority here, among which there are several Shia communities. Aspects of the life and
activities of the Shia community in Ukraine are almost unexplored. Although at the
same time a number of studies were devoted to the Shiite minorities of Western
European countries, therefore in this paper, we examined the characteristics of the life
of the Shia community in Ukraine and compared it with the characteristics of the Shia
communities in Western Europe. Special attention was paid to the peculiarities of the
mentality of the indigenous Shiites, represented by Azerbaijanis. The features of the
institutionalization of the Shia communities of Ukraine, the features of conducting
divine services and mourning events of Ashura were considered. After analyzing the
above problems, we came to the conclusion that the Shiites of Ukraine are more
passive, so we tried to identify the reasons for such passivity, among which the most
important are the Soviet "atheistic" past; cultural, national and linguistic diversity of
representatives of the Shiite minority of Ukraine, which prevents larger gatherings of
Shiites from being held. We consider the article as a basis for further research in this
region, therefore, the purpose of the study was to highlight all possible problematic
aspects of the life of Shiite minorities in Ukraine. |
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