Paul
Goble
Staunton, June 4 – Many analysts
have looked at demographic trends and concluded that sometime toward the middle
this century, Muslims will outnumber Russians on the territory of what is today
the Russian Federation and thus be in a position to shift that country in the
direction of an Islamic state.
But now a Russian philologist,
Nikolay Podsokorsky, argues that the transformation of that country could come
much sooner. As he put it in his blog yesterday, “Russia could become an
Islamic state already in ten to fifteen years,” in part because of the dynamism
of Islam and in part because of Moscow’s policies (philologist.livejournal.com/7576643.html).
He begins by noting that “Islam is
step by step becoming the dominant religion of the planet,” pointing to the
conclusions of the Pew Research Center, the projections of both Muslims and non-Muslims about the
influence of Islam in the future, and new dystopian novels which are appearing
in Europe.
“Similar prognostications,” he
writes, “exist with regard to Russia as well, all the more so since the
present-day Russian Orthodox Church is actively supporting the Islamization of
the country and of Orthodoxy”
and the Kremlin’s commitment to the defense of “traditional values” and
opposition to “blasphemy” open the way to an Islamist approach.
Moreover, Podsokorsky writes, “one
of the most popular and strongest Russian politicians today is the head of
Chechnya, academician and hero of Russia Ramzan Kadyrov who is considered as
one of the most likely successors of Putin as president” of the Russian
Federation.
According to the philologist, “Muslims
at present are one of the most passionate of all religious groups, and
considering the trend of development in Russia … it is not difficult to imagine
that already in ten to fifteen years, Russia also could become an Islamic
State,” not a small one but one with nuclear weapons and a set in the UN
Security Council and with shariat courts in its major cities.
There are certainly straws in the wind: Not long ago, the
governor of Tyumen oblast called for a new translation of the Koran to reflect “both
religious dogmatics and the realities of contemporary life.” And last week in
Yekaterinburg, prosecutors said they wanted to examine the Jewish Torah for
examples of extremism.
“In general,” he continues, “the idea of an Islamic state,” one
in which there should be “a holy war with unbelievers … is being advanced very
well by present-day Russian propaganda with its doctrine of the besieged fortress
and of blasphemers as the chief enemies of society.” All one need to do is substitute Islam for
Orthodoxy to make Russia an Islamic state.
Ever more young people in Russia are attracted
to Islam and have gone to fight for ISIS abroad, but “now this religious plague
has come to Russia as well,” with young ethnic Russians like Varvara Karaulova
of Moscow State University being attracted or at least recruited to support an
Islamic state not only abroad but at home as well.
The existence of a growing number of such people means,
Podsokorsky says, that “the Islamic state is hardly a mythical and distant
threat but a danger which threatens us here and now.” And what is especially disturbing, he
continues, is that for all its words against ISIS, “the Islamic state [in
Russia] is being built by the efforts of secular and church politicians from
the current Russian Federation.”
That is a consequence of “the clericalization of Russian society
from above” that more Russians and other should be thinking about lest the
situation get even worse.
No comments:
Post a Comment