Islam to become Russia’s predominant religion by 2050?
22-07-2008
Pravda:
Islam is likely to become the primary religion in the Russian Federation
by 2050 due to the
high birth rate in Muslim republics.
The current Chinese-led conquest of Russia’s Far East already seems to be
a matter of immediate
concern for the Kremlin. The ethnic birth rate dispro****tion in different
regions of the
country is another problem. The Muslim community may become the largest
community by the middle
of the current century. Therefore, Islam has all chances to become the
predominant religion in
Russia.
Ukrainian scientists of politics, Valery Chaliy and Mikhail Pashkov,
believe that this is not
the only challenge, which Russia has to face nowadays.
“The Russian macroeconomic stability is being shattered with the high
inflation rate and
growing food prices. Considerable funds are being invested in state-run
cor****ations and are
being spent on social needs. Corruption restrains the growth of the
national economy. Russia
dropped from the 120th to the 14th place among 160 countries on
Transparency International’s
corruption list. Russian found itself in the company of Gambia, Indonesia
and Togo at this
point. Russia takes the humble 58th place on the list of 131 countries on
the integral rating
of the competitive ability of the economy for 2007.
Islam is currently the second most widely professed religion in the
Russian Federation. It is
impossible to provide official statistics of "practicing" adherents of
Islam or any other
religion in Russia because there is no country-wide census or statistics
done on this matter by
any governmental organization. Roman Silantyev, a Russian Islamologist has
estimated that there
are only between 7 and 9 million people who practise Islam in Russia, and
that the rest are
only Muslims by ethnicity. Muslim communities are concentrated among
minority nationalities
residing between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea: Adyghe, Balkars,
Chechens, Circassians,
Ingush, Kabardin, Karachay, and numerous Dagestani peoples. Also, in the
middle of the Volga
Basin reside populations of Tatars and Bashkirs, many of whom are Muslims.
There was much evidence of official conciliation toward Islam in Russia in
the 1990s. The
number of Muslims allowed to make pilgrimages to Mecca increased sharply
after the embargo of
the Soviet era ended in 1990. In 1995 the newly established Union of
Muslims of Russia, led by
Imam Khatyb Mukaddas of Tatarstan, began organizing a movement aimed at
improving inter-ethnic
understanding and ending Russians' lingering misconception of Islam. The
Union of Muslims of
Russia is the direct successor to the pre-World War I Union of Muslims,
which had its own
faction in the Russian Duma. The post-Communist union has formed a
political party, the Nur
All-Russia Muslim Public Movement, which acts in close coordination with
Muslim imams to defend
the political, economic, and cultural rights of Muslims and other
minorities. The Islamic
Cultural Center of Russia, which includes a madrassa (religious school),
opened in Moscow in 1991.
The majority of Muslims in Russia adhere to the Sunni branch of Islam.
About 2% are ****'a
Muslims. In a few areas, notably Chechnya, there is a tradition of Sunni
Sufism. The Azeris
have also historically and still currently been nominally followers of
****'a Islam, as their
republic split off from the Soviet Union, significant number of Azeris
immigrated to Russia in
search of work.
Many Muslim citizens, in particular Muslim clerics, often cite instances
of arrest and
harassment by authorities, as well as ocassional confiscation of Islamic
educational sources.
The problems have been exacerbated by terrorist attacks linked with
Islamic extremism and
Chechen independence. Many ordinary Muslims in Russia fear that they have
become the victims of
a violent backlash.
The rise in the Russian Muslim population, terrorist attacks and the steep
decline of the
ethnic Russian population have given rise to a greater degree of
Xenophobia and Islamophobia in
Russia. Violent racist attacks by ethnic Russians, particularly Neo-Nazi
skinheads, which used
to be mainly conducted against Jews, are becoming increasingly frequent
towards Muslims. As
such, Muslims bear the brunt of the escalating racist violence in Russia.
Racist attacks struck
539 people in 2006, a 17 percent rise over 2005, the Sova analytical
center said in a re****t.
Nearly half of the 56 people killed in the attacks were from the
overwhelmingly North Caucasus
and Central Asia.
** Posted from http://www.teranews.com
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