Paul
Goble
Staunton, March 7 – Last week, Muslim morals police began patrolling
the streets of Moscow to warn the faithful against violating the norms of their
religion (eadaily.com/ru/news/2017/03/06/shariatskiy-patrul-v-moskve-radikalizaciya-musulman-po-evropeyski),
just one of the ways in which “Islam is changing Russia” rapidly and radically.
In an essay for Warsaw’s Dzennik newspaper, Michał Potocki
catalogues this and other ways in which Islam is now transforming the Russian
Federation in profound and unexpected ways (wiadomosci.dziennik.pl/swiat/artykuly/544148,islam-zmienia-rosje-muzulmanie-moskwa-czeczenia.html;
in Russian at inosmi.ru/religion/20170307/238831845.html).
Among his findings:
·
There
are now three million Muslims in the Russian capital, one in every four of its
residents even though the Russian government continues to insist that there are
fewer than 300,000 and allows only four mosques to function in the city proper.
·
Moscow’s
Muslims commit far fewer crimes per capita than other residents do. They form
25 percent of the population but make up only three percent of the police
lists.
·
Seven
of Russia’s non-Russian republics – Ingushetia, Chechnya, Daghestan,
Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachayevo-Cherkessia – have Muslim majorities, and two
others Bashkortostan and Tatarstan are approaching that figure.
·
Muslim
nationalities are growing 60 to 90 times faster than the all-Russian average,
with Chechens increasing by 1.82 percent a year, for example, while the all-Russian
figure is only 0.02 percent.
In short, Russia is becoming an ever more
Muslim country, something that has profound consequences not only for its
domestic organization but also for its involvement in other parts of the Muslim
world.
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