Resurgence of Fundamentalist and Radical Islamic Identities in Crimea and Its Implications for Regional Security in Post-Soviet Ukraine (Research Brief)

In post-independence Ukraine, the number of registered religious organizations has been growing significantly within the last decade. According to Vladimir Maliborsky, the Chairperson of the Republican Committee for Religious Affairs (RCRA) of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, religious organizations increased forty-fold in Crimea, surpassing all the other regions of Ukraine. My research specifically focuses on one of these rapidly growing religions, namely, Islam, in Crimea as well as in Ukraine. It examines the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Ukraine (DUMU) and the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Crimea (DUMK), which represent mainstream Islam, as well as the dynamics of the emerging fundamental Islamic splinter group Hizb Ut Tahrir al Islami (HUT), or Party of Liberation, which was originally founded in 1952 in Jerusalem (Al Quds) by Taqi al-Din al-Nabhani. By highlighting the serious ideological rifts between the mainstream Islamic administrations and HUT, this research aims to assess the risks in sufficient time to prevent potential intra-religious group conflict from erupting into violence and spilling over to the international arena.