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Vol. 12 No. 1 (2024)
Comparative Studies on Religious Education

Articles

FORTRESSES OF IDENTITY UNDER THE STATE'S SHADOW: A Comparative Study of Madrasas in Preserving Islam in Indonesia and The Republic of Tatarstan, Russia

Published 2025-11-02

  • Haula Hasna Dalila
    • ,
  • Marat Bulatovich Bikmullin
    • ,
  • Ildar Irekovich Khuzin
    • ,
  • Tanto Aljauharie Tantowie

Haula Hasna Dalila
Program Pascasarjana, Institut Agama Islam Darussalam (IAID) Ciamis Jawa Barat

Marat Bulatovich Bikmullin
Institute of Psychology and Education, Kazan Federal University, Kazan, Russia

Ildar Irekovich Khuzin
State Autonomus Educational Institution of Higher Professional Education of Moscow 'Moscow City University', Samara, Russia

Tanto Aljauharie Tantowie
Program Pascasarjana, Institut Agama Islam Darussalam (IAID) Ciamis Jawa Barat

Abstract

This study explores how Islamic educational institutions preserve identity under the shadow of the modern state by comparing madrasas in Indonesia and Tatarstan (Russia). Both operate under vastly different political skies, Indonesia as a Muslim-majority democracy with a state-recognized Islamic education system, and Tatarstan as a Muslim republic within a secular federation still marked by Soviet legacies. Yet both share a common calling: to defend faith, culture, and community within the constraints of power. Using comparative historical and policy analysis, the research draws from national laws, ministerial decrees, official curricula, and scholarly literature to uncover how madrasas negotiate survival. Findings reveal two distinct paradigms of resilience. In Indonesia, the madrasa functions as a fortress of integration: protected and regulated by the Ministry of Religious Affairs, it balances Islamic authenticity with national pluralism through a tripartite curriculum and institutional alignment. In Tatarstan, by contrast, the madrasa emerges as a fortress of cultural survival: rebuilt after Soviet repression, it preserves Islam by fusing faith with Tatar ethnic identity and aligning with the state’s notion of “traditional Islam.” Despite their differences, both models show that the madrasa is not a relic but a living institution, adaptive, political, and deeply rooted in the moral imagination of its people. The study concludes that the preservation of Islamic identity is less about isolation than negotiation: a dynamic process shaped by how institutions read, respond to, and sometimes repurpose the state’s shadow.

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