Both Muslim and European? An inquiry into the case of the Muslim community in Lithuania
ENThe article analyses the Lithuanian case as an example of Muslim presence in North-Eastern Europe. The theoretical foundation of the article is Nira Yuval-Davis’ ideas found in her 2006 article “Belonging and the politics of belonging.” Nira Yuval-Davis’ outline of “an analytical framework for the study of belonging and the politics of belonging”1 has been instrumentalised in the present research on narratives of belonging and inclusion of Lithuania’s autochthonous Muslim community, the Lithuanian Tatars. Employing historical evidence and current legal framework of the governance of religion, interviews with Tatar community leaders, opinion polls and media reports, the article not only illuminates the position which the Muslim Tatar community currently occupies in Lithuania but also the place of the broader “Muslim question” in the national discourse. Keywords: Lithuanian Tatars; Muslim community in Lithuania; “traditional faith community”; narratives of inclusion and belonging; loyalty to the nation; construction of identity; European Muslim identity.
