“Halal” Cafés in Moscow and “Muslimness”: Problem Statement

Abstract

This article examines the halal industry, specifically “halal” cafés and restaurants in Moscow. Given the varying perceptions of halality among restaurateurs and café owners, we use scare quotes to emphasize the contested nature of the term “halal”. This topic is quite relevant for various reasons, there is a significant lack of research on this topic based on material from Moscow; secondly, there has been a rapid growth in the emergence of such restaurants and catering establishments. The study draws on an analysis of the operations of ten cafés and one restaurant in Moscow that present themselves as “halal”. These eleven sites were recruited using Respondent-Driven Sampling (RDS), a method widely used, including in Russia, to collect data on marginalized, hard-to-reach groups such as migrant communities. The article presents five semi-structured interviews with owners or administrators and employed participant observation in all of these establishments So far, these are only preliminary conclusions, since the two-year project “The Culture of everyday Life of Moscow Muslims: spaces, networks and practices” is at the beginning of its implementation. Nevertheless, the broad contours of the “big picture” are beginning to emerge, pointing to a substantial segment of Moscow’s urban space where Muslim communities play a significant role.