Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the functioning of Islamic institutions in Kazakhstan. The COVID-19 pandemic gave a new impetus to the mediatization process of Islam in Kazakhstan, resulting in the transfer of most of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Kazakhstan (SAMK) and its subdivisions’ activities to the Internet and media space, excluding religious rituals. The authors argue that the use of new media technology had a substantial impact on the activities of official Islamic structures in Kazakhstan, becoming a ‘test’ of mediatization, based on the concepts of ‘mediatization’ of religion by S. Hjarvard and ‘network religion’ by H. Campbell.

The authors show that the SAMK, which represents ‘traditional Islam’ in Kazakhstan, is currently involved by the state as a mediator for outreach work among the population for the purpose of reducing social tension and promoting official state discourses on various social issues. The SAMK’s mediation function in the context of the coronavirus pandemic is to explain and substantiate, from an Islamic perspective, the government’s unpopular decisions to close mosques during the state of emergency and the subsequent ban/restriction of collective prayers in religious institutions.

The authors identified the discourses produced by the SAMK under quarantine conditions and broadcast on its media platforms and messengers based on a content analysis of the Muftiat’s website and social media pages. The content posted in the media by official Islamic structures demonstrated the intertextuality of state institutions’ official discourse and the SAMK’s discourses, legitimizing government decisions by appealing to Islamic values. Support for state-imposed emergency and quarantine restrictions, the discourse of Islam as a religion of purity, the discourse-call for Muslim unity, and the discourse on the importance of charity were among the dominating discourses. Interviews with the mosque’s imams and ministers made it possible to hear the voices of Muslim clergy who interacted with the local population (in particular, the benefits and drawbacks of new forms of work from their perspective were revealed), as well as show how they passed the ‘test’ of mediatization.

In a decentralized and competitive media space, such a consequence of mediatization as a shift of religious authority from traditional Islamic structures to new influential religious actors, including both promoting SAMK discourses and expressing alternative positions based on their reading of Islam, was given particular attention. The pluralization of religious authority in the discussion of the media agenda shaped by the issues of Muslims in the context of the pandemic had caused a conflict of interpretations. In general, the ‘test’ of mediatization resulted in strengthening the SAMK’s activities to adapt new media technology, in the production of new initiatives, such as the electronic muftiat, and the advancement of new requirements for the competencies of imams.