Community for Muslims Only Near Moscow Outrages Russians

Paul Goble

            Staunton, August 24 – A gated community for Muslims only now being developed by a Muslim fashion designer 140 kilometers from the Russian capital is outraging and alarming Russians who are calling it a jamaat, a term often used to refer to Islamist terrorist groups, and say that it violates Putin’s policy of creating a secular society and threatens the Russian land.

            The site, known as Aminovka will have a central mosque and will ban all non-halal activities and products, organizers say, and is being advertised for Muslims not only from throughout the Russian Federation but also from foreign countries who may be coming to Russia to live or work (nazaccent.ru/content/36460-v-podmoskove-stroyat-pervyj-v-regione.html).

            Reports about this community have sparked a firestorm of criticism ranging from claims that this represents an attack on what must remain Russian lands, will lead to the formation of more Muslim ghettos in Russian cities to a new center of crime and even terrorism that the Russian government should stamp out before any of that happens.

            (For a sampling, see radio1.news/article/trevozhnyy-zvonochek-v-mosobldume-otsenili-islamskoe-poselenie-aminovka/, rys-strategia.ru/news/2021-08-24-12443ruskline.ru/news_rl/2021/08/25/musulmanskii_anklav_bliz_moskvy and moslenta.ru/news/v-mosobldume-nazvali-trevozhnym-zvonochkom-vozniknovenie-poselka-dlya-musulman-23-08-2021.htm.)

            A commentary by Sergey Mardan in Komsomolskaya pravda gives some idea of just how frightened and angry reports about this community and the first sales of houses and lots to Muslims and only Muslims are making many Russians in the capital (kp.ru/daily/28320/4463808/).

            The moving spirit behind this new residential enclave, he says, is Amina Shabanova, who has attracted attention for her design of burkinis for Muslim women who want to be able to go to the beach while remaining true to Muslim standards after first being criticized for demanding the right to wear a hijab while she was a student at the prestigious MGIMO

            According to the commentator, “’friendship of the peoples’ officially ended in 1991;” and since that time Muslim immigrants have flooded into Russia and to what are historically Russian lands. As a result, the Russian Federation still exists but Russia is under threat of being overwhelmed.

            The authorities talk about fighting Islamist terrorism, but they are doing nothing about this. And unless they close this place down now, Mardan says, similar Muslim enclaves will be formed elsewhere in the Moscow region and around other Russian cities and be breeding grounds for crime and terrorism.