Staunton, October 29 – “Traditional” Islam in Russia is losing ground to its ‘non-traditional” competitor, especially among the young, but the division between the two is not insuperable and the future of Islam in the Russian Federation is likely to be “a hybrid” combining elements of each, according to Aleksey Malashenko. In an extensive article […]
Tag: Muslims
China Could Suffer Same Fate as USSR, Uyghur Leader Says
Staunton, October 28 – The people of Hong Kong, together with the peoples of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Republic and Tibet, are fighting for their independence, Rabiya Kadir, a leader of the Uyghur national movement says, and if one succeeds so too will the others and thus “it is not excluded that in a short […]
New Kyiv Center Aims to Consolidate Pro-Ukrainian Muslims and Pro-Islamic Ukrainians
Staunton, October 22 – A new group appeared in Ukraine’s already complicated religious environment this week: the Ukrainian Muslim Center which its organizers say will link various groups of Ukrainians who have converted to Islam with other Muslim groups in order to “consolidate pro-Ukrainian Muslims and pro-Muslim Ukrainians.” Discussions about the possibility of forming such […]
Moscow’s Mistreatment of Muslims Seen Triggering Violence Across Russia
Staunton, October 6 – The editors of Moscow’s Nezavisimaya Gazeta warn in a lead article October 6 that “injustice toward [Muslim] believers could lead to violence” in Moscow and other Russian cities as well, a conclusion that new research on the state of inter-ethnic relations in Russia’s regions confirms. “Almost two million” people have viewed […]
Volga Tatar Activist’s Conviction Echoes in Russia and Ukraine
Staunton, October 3 – The conviction of Fauziya Bayramova, president of the Volga Tatar Milli Mejlis and a longtime activist for the Tatar nation, for her support of the Crimean Tatars as well as her suspended one-year sentence is attracting widespread attention in the Russian Federation and in Ukraine. Yesterday, a city court in Naberezhny […]
Could the Muslims of Kaliningrad Trigger a Maidan in the Russian Exclave?
Staunton, September 29 – The 100,000-strong Muslim community of Kaliningrad is running out of options in the Russian legal system to secure land for the construction of a mosque in that Russian exclave and consequently will now appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, according to their lawyer Dagir Khasavov. But meanwhile, continuing opposition […]
Volga Tatars Demonstrate Against Russian Persecution of Crimean Tatars
Staunton, September 27 – On September 27, a group of Volga Tatar nationalists demonstrated in Kazan against Russian persecution of Crimean Tatars, an action that not only reinforces the ties between the two Turkic peoples but also highlights the way in which what Moscow is doing in Crimea is increasingly resonating among non-Russians inside the […]
Moscow’s Support for Non-Russians Isn’t Determined by Their Size, Muslim Commentator Says
Staunton, July 21 – Russian officials have often argued that the amount of government support for the titular nationalities of the non-Russian republics of the Russian Federation should reflect their share of the population rather than the fact that these republics are the national homes of those nations. But in fact, a Muslim commentator says, […]
The ‘Immigrant Threat’ Theme Returns to Russian Media
Staunton, July 13 – For most of the last six months, the Moscow media have talked about little else than Ukraine, thus shifting the concerns of many Russians away from the issue of immigration from Central Asia and the Caucasus. Now, those same outlets are again focusing on immigrants as a threat. On the one […]
Firebombing of Muslim Prayer Room in Buddhist Kalmykia Raises Specter of a Burma in Southern Russia
Staunton, July 4 – Much of the world has been shocked by the violent clashes between Buddhists and Muslims in Burma, clashes that have claimed many lives and destabilized that southeast Asian nation. But now there is a risk that a similar kind of conflict could emerge in predominantly Buddhist Kalmykia, a republic in southern […]