Ethnic Georgian Muslims in a Christian-dominated nation

Muslims maintain lived peacefully in Georgia for hundreds of years, a rustic with a majority of Orthodox Christians which considers itself as tolerant to all faiths, nonetheless a mountainous decision of oldsters eye Islam as alien to the Georgian nationwide identity.

The angle is a source of noteworthy frustration in its southwestern location of Adjara, where about 30 p.c of ethnic Georgians follow Islam, most of them living in its highlands.

Hurie Abashidze, a 25-365 days-frail postgraduate psychology pupil, grew up in one in every of the luxurious green mountainous villages of the house, which is shut to the Turkey border.

But Abashidze was sheltered from such sentiment amid nation-building within the newly honest Georgia, following the cave in of the Soviet Union.

She broken-down to overhear her mother whinge when ethnic Georgian Muslims were branded as « traitors » who worshipped the God of the country’s past invaders – Arabs, Persians and Ottomans, nonetheless she had not encountered any negativity addressed to her till 2012.

Generally Christianity is consistently equated with the Georgian identity so the extra Muslims there are, the extra possibility of shedding the Georgian identity, based mostly totally totally on them

Hurie Abashidze, postgraduate psychology pupil 

That was when – at the age of 20 – she started carrying a hijab, a scarf weak by many Muslim females who feel it is half of their religion.

« Generally, if you usually are not visually recognisable as a Muslim, other folks are comely with you because they don’t necessarily quiz about your religion. But if you are carrying a hijab and specific your religious identity, you fetch a diverse response, » she suggested Al Jazeera.

« My household members had such a accurate response to my resolution though that I did not pay noteworthy attention to the outsiders. »

Hurie was overwhelmed by her household’s toughen for her resolution on carrying the scarf [Courtesy of Beso Gvenetadze]

With a nervous chortle, she mentioned frequent behaviour from strangers ranged from shock and judgemental appears to be like to be like to swearing by males and cursing by females.

Hurie gets less of this remedy within the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, than in Batumi, the administrative capital of her native Adjara.

« That is maybe because there are extra Muslims in Batumi. They appear to think that we’re stripping away their nationwide identity. It is a ways associated with shedding the Georgian identity, » she mentioned.

« Generally Christianity is consistently equated with the Georgian identity so the extra Muslims there are, the extra possibility of shedding the Georgian identity, based mostly totally totally on them. »

Hurie thinks the most effective possible manner to confront right here’s by Muslims changing into extra viewed in society, and she called on her fellow scarf-carrying electorate to be energetic.

To persuade sure substitute, she currently participated in public discussions on the topic and cooperated with the Tolerance and Diversity Institute (TDI) – a non-governmental organisation based mostly totally mostly in Tbilisi.

TDI commissioned a speedy video about Hurie’s existence as half of a mission, applied within the framework of United States Agency for Global Pattern (USAID), to advertise tolerance thru stories of oldsters with diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds.

Eka Chitanava, TDI’s director, suggested Al Jazeera that an absence of knowledge created house for myths about other faiths.

« TDI’s research has proven that the religious vary is portrayed negatively in Georgia’s college textbooks. As an illustration, Muslims are equated to invaders with out following up by explanations of the [historical] context, » she mentioned.

« The contributions to the Georgian custom by other religious groups or their representatives are regularly not mentioned. Also, the incontrovertible truth that religious officials of Orthodox Christian and other faiths broken-down to maintain stable cooperation and accurate family members between each and each other is generally missed. »

That cooperation and tolerance was broken by the totalitarian design of the Soviet Union after which persisted by inertia, she mentioned.

« We silent haven’t chanced on a skill out of the Soviet impact. Grade by grade, we must attain out of it by offering extra records to especially the younger know-how so that the ethnical and religious vary is viewed in a undeniable light and never as a possibility of shedding our nationwide identity. »

‘I returned to my ancestors’ religion’

Regardless of their other folks’ objections, some younger ethnic Georgian Muslims who were born or grew up after independence, are selecting Orthodox Christianity over Islam.

They eye it as a correction of a historic execrable, relating to Adjara’s inhabitants adopting Islam all thru the Ottoman Empire’s rule over the location.

« I made up my thoughts to fetch baptised after I grew to turn out to be a university pupil, after I looked deeper into our historic past, » Mikheil Nakashidze, a 35-365 days-frail lawyer from Adjara, suggested Al Jazeera.

« Georgia was one in every of the indispensable countries where Christianity was spread and it took dispute precisely thru Adjara, so I made up my thoughts to achieve to my ancestors’ religion. »

He also mentioned he converted because he can also not learn Arabic, so was praying in a language he can also not model.

His mother, a practising Muslim, was afflict and did not consult with him for 3 days.

« But later she made up with me and suggested me that there was simplest one God and it did not topic in which manner I believed in Him or served Him, » mentioned Nakashidze

The Jumah mosque is Tbilisi’s simplest Muslim house of love [David Mdzinarishvili/Reuters]

Tariel Nakaidze, the head of Georgian Muslims Union, suggested Al Jazeera that there are currently between 300,000 and 350,000 ethnic Georgian Muslims within the country, on high of Azerbaijani and Chechen Muslims.

But out of all big cities, there was simplest one mosque in Tbilisi and one extra in Batumi.

Tbilisi’s Jumah mosque is shared by Sunnis and Shia because Soviets destroyed the Shia’s house of love decades ago – it was by no manner rebuilt.

Batumi’s Orta Jami just will not be big sufficient to accommodate the Friday congregation; some worshippers offer prayers outdoors within the rain and snow, based mostly totally totally on Nakaidze.

Discuss of a unique mosque within the city started bigger than 20 years ago, he mentioned.

In 2015, a team plan up by the Georgian Muslims Union aimed to real a executive allow to manufacture a unique mosque.

After receiving a verbal green light from the mayor’s office, the Union sold a group of three,000 square metres with contributions from the Muslim neighborhood, based mostly totally totally on Nakaidze.

But the allow by no manner came. A rejection letter arrived with an excuse that the positioning was not honest for the mosque, prompting a accurate case by the Union.

The unique mosque opened with out a building [Courtesy of Tariel Nakaidze]

« To teach the resolution, we opened the mosque in start air on May maybe 26, Georgia’s independence day, and we haven’t stopped performing prayers there since then.

« We built rather hut-love structure to give protection to other folks from the rain and the authorities issued a penalty for it nonetheless we’re not going to pay anything else, » he mentioned.

« The authorities don’t dispute it out loud pointless to dispute, nonetheless in closed-door discussions they mention that they don’t are desirous to upset the Christian neighborhood and that is the clarification why they’re not titillating to give the allow. But we’re silent hopeful that we are going to achieve our aim thru court docket.

« We eye this fight because the fight for accurate democracy. Neither a Christian, nor a Muslim has the gorgeous to preserve within the manner of the democratic fashion of Georgia, so in this case we maintain a civil responsibility to eye it thru that this mosque, which now grew to turn out to be a image of democracy, is built, » he mentioned.

Meanwhile, Hurie remains hopeful.

« I took a university coursemate with me to the presentation of the movie [about me], » she mentioned.

« She was greatly surprised to learn that there were other folks out there who reacted to me in such a antagonistic manner. She suggested me after the event: ‘I am very overjoyed to know you’. And it was essentially very dazzling for me. »

Prepare Al Jazeera’s Tamila Varshalomidze on Twitter: @tamila87v