Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 05/2014

Georgia's Muslim Community: A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy?

Conor Prasad

February 2012

European Centre for Minority Issues

Abstract

The principle objective of this paper is to examine the creation of the new Administration of Georgian Muslims; how and why it has been created and what its specific role, function and means of operating will be. Most importantly, it will examine how the administration has been received by Georgia's Muslims and how it will affect them. However, in order to understand fully both the causes and implications of the new administration, it is first necessary to understand the Muslim community which it is attempting to manage. Significantly, this administrative change has been carried out against the backdrop of a Muslim community which has not only been in a state of change for a number of years, but is also far from united.