Muslims emerged on Russia's territory far earlier than Christianity did. And now the muslim population of Russia is rising even as the country's overall population falls. A Muslim power? It sounds bizarre. But Russia has more Muslims than any other European state (bar Turkey); and the Muslim share of the population is rising fast. The 2002 census found that Russia's Muslims numbered 14.5m, 10% of its total of 145m. In 2005 the foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, put the number of Muslims at 20m.
Demographers predict that by 2020 one out of five Russians will be Muslim. But the question is: How Muslim will they be?
The country's Muslim community is extremely diverse. A large part Muslims in Russia adhere to the Sunni branch of Islam. About 10% are Shi'a Muslims. In a few areas, notably Chechnya, there is a tradition of Sufism, a mystical variety of Islam that stresses the individual's search for union with God.
For
The Economist, Russia's fastest-growing religious group is not like their counterparts in other countries. Is clear the emergence within Russia of an active but ultimately loyal Muslim community. Muslims want a fair deal and growing influence to match their rising numbers.
Aside from the Caucasus, there are now two concentrations of
Muslims in Russia. One is in Moscow, swollen by labour migration, where they may number 2m. The other is in the faith's old bastions: Bashkortostan and, above all, Tatarstan, where a revival of the faith has been overseen successfully by regional president, Mintimer Shaimiev.
Since no political force in Russia has much hope if it stands in open opposition to Mr Putin, these Muscovite Muslims tend to flex their muscles by being (even) more critical of the West than the Russian norm. Shamil Sultanov, a Muslim legislator who is close to the new movement, praises Mr Putin for “standing up to America” and its nefarious plans. Such talk meshes easily with a strand of Russian nationalism that looks to Islam as an anti-Western ally.
The Kremlin saw the political potentiality of Russian Islam a long time ago. Can be United States the only super power in the world, even when including China and Russia, Islam alliance?
70 years of communism have bulldozed most religious and ethnic traditions in Russia, so do not be surprised when you hear imans saying it is all right that most Muslims do not even attend the mosque. "It is not obligatory," Mr Alyautdinov, the then 31-year-old imam of the Moscow Memorial mosque, said to
BBC in 2005. "Life is very fast these days, so people don't have time to go to mosque." In other words: Русская жизнь - в исламской НОРМE: (
Russian life with islamic rules).
"If people wear tight jeans or skirts and speak slang, it does not mean they have veered from the path of true Islam."
Russian Islam goes its own way.
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