Muslims Now Form Almost a Third of Inmates in Russian Penal System

Paul Goble

            Staunton, September 22 -- Muslims now form 30 percent of all inmates in the Russian penal system, a figure that is more than twice their share in the population of the Russian Federation (according to official estimates) and one that has been growing rapidly in recent years, according to new statistics featured on the Tolkovatel portal. 

            Indeed, Russian government figures suggest, the portal continues, that “by 2030, the number of Muslims in ‘zones’ may reach 50 percent of the total, including in that number the many prisoners who accept Islam” while incarcerated, an even greater disbalance (ttolk.ru/articles/bez_vyisshego_obrazovaniya_musulmanin_ne_raskayavshiysya_bolnoy_-_kak_vyiglyadyat_zeki_rossii).

            According to researchers at the federal penal agency, “the increase in the share of Muslim convicts potentially increases the possibility of conflicts among the incarcerated on a religious and ethnic basis.”

            Other figures that Tolkovatel has assembled show that Russian prisoners are less educated, poorer, more rural and disproportionately and increasingly older than the share of such groups in the population as a whole might suggest.