Abstract
Based on the ethnography of mosques and halal cafes in Astana, this chapter argues that aspirations for modernity, urbanity, and civility can be manifested in various Islamic forms. Moreover, in these new forms of Islamic visibility, entrepreneurship, and community-making, we are witnessing a peaceful local decolonization movement that is trying to “break away” from the Soviet and Western-imposed norms of ethics, rationality, and visions of moral order. The concept of “decolonial turn” developed by postcolonial theorists like Madina Tlostanova and Walter Mignolo (Learning to Unlearn: Decolonial Reflection from Eurasia and the Americas, Ohio State University Press, 2012) comes particularly useful here as we theorize how newly emerging actors on the ground attempt to create an “alternative modernity” through reinventing religious tradition.
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Notes
- 1.
“Gorodskoe Kafe” (town café) is a post-Soviet concept that loosely defines a certain market segment—places that usually offer tea, coffee, and a mixture of European and local cuisine. This format markedly contrasts itself from expensive fine dining places but also from fast food establishments and appeals to urban-dwellers as an affordable place for socializing.
- 2.
Smoking has been prohibited in the restaurants since 2010 but many restaurants allow smoking on the terrace and have special smoking rooms.
- 3.
See article 7 of the Law on Religious Activities and Religious Organizations (Zakon RK o religioznoi deiatel’nosti i religioznyh ob’’edineniiah) available at http://online.zakon.kz/Document/?doc_id=31067690.
- 4.
“Plov” is a Russian word for pilaf; it is an iconic Central Asian dish.
- 5.
Interview with the author on August 12, 2016.
- 6.
Almaty is divided both socially and geographically between the upper (closer to the mountains) and lower districts.
- 7.
Uigurka and Uzbechka is also a feminine ethnonym that can be translated from Russian as an Uigur woman/girl and an Uzbek woman/girl, respectively.
- 8.
Smoking shisha or hookah [molasses-cured tobacco in a water-pipe], loan word from Arabic, usually forbidden in halal places in Kazakhstan.
- 9.
- 10.
Interview with the author on February 16, 2016.
- 11.
We are borrowing the term “alternative modernity” from Aiwa Ong’s (1999) Flexible Citizenship: The Cultural Logics of Transnationality.
- 12.
Auzashar literally means “to open one’s mouth”—i.e. to break the fast.
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Bissenova, A., Kikimbayev, M. (2024). Fitting into a Secular Society: Hybrid Practices of the Islamic Public and Islamic Businesses in Astana. In: Sharipova, D., Bissenova, A., Burkhanov, A. (eds) Post-Colonial Approaches in Kazakhstan and Beyond. The Steppe and Beyond: Studies on Central Asia. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-8262-2_8
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