ISLAM IN RUSSIA

Islam is the largest religious minority in Russia, and is the religion of many ethnic minorities; mostly from the Middle Volga and Caucasus region. The most natural approach to measure the number of Islam adherents in Russia is based on self-identification data of a specific ethnic group. The following table provides an overview of the number of Muslim-majority ethnic groups in Russia and what percentage of the population they make up, based on the 2002 Russian Census:

'Islam in Russia', based on 2002 Russian Census and Ethnic Group predominant religion

Ethnic Group	Population(2002)	% Population	Predominant religion
Tajiks	120,136	0.08%	Islam
Tats	2,303	0.00%	Islam
Tatars	5,554,601	3.83%	Islam
Bashkirs	1,673,389	1.15%	Islam
Kazakhs	653,962	0.45%	Islam
Azerbaijani	621,840	0.43%	Islam
Kumyks	422,409	0.29%	Islam
Karachays	192,182	0.13%	Islam
Uzbeks	122,916	0.08%	Islam
Balkars	108426	0.07%	Islam
Turks	95,672	0.06%	Islam
Nogais	90,666	0.06%	Islam
Circassians	60,517	0.04%	Islam
Turkmens	33,053	0.02%	Islam
Kirghiz	31,808	0.02%	Islam
Crimean Tatars	4,131	0.00%	Islam
Chechens	1,360,253	0.94%	Islam
Avars	814,473	0.56%	Islam
Kabardians	519,958	0.36%	Islam
Dargins	510,156	0.35%	Islam
Ingush	413,016	0.28%	Islam
Lezgins	411,535	0.28%	Islam
Laks	156,545	0.11%	Islam
Tabasarans	131,785	0.09%	Islam
Adyghe	128,528	0.09%	Islam
Abazas	37,942	0.03%	Islam
Rutuls	29,929	0.02%	Islam
Aguls	28,297	0.02%	Islam
Tsakhurs	10,366	0.01%	Islam
Total			Islam

It is impossible to provide accurate statistics of real "practicing" adherents of Islam or any other religion in Russia because there is no country-wide census or statistics done on this matter by the federal government or any other governmental organization.
The largest Islamic community present resides in Tatarstan and Bashkortostan. A large number of Muslim communities are concentrated among the minority nationalities residing between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea: the Adyghes, Balkars, Nogais, Chechens, Circassians, Ingush, Kabardin, Karachay, and numerous Dagestani nationalities. In the middle of the Volga Basin are large populations of Tatars and Bashkirs, most of whom are Muslims. Many Muslims also reside in Perm Krai and Ulyanovsk, Samara, Nizhny Novgorod, Moscow, Tyumen, and the Leningrad Oblasts (mostly ethnic Tatars).

Contents

History of Islam in Russia

Islam today

List of Russian Muslims

Russian Muslims and the Hajj

See also

References

External links

History of Islam in Russia

The first Muslims within current Russian territory were the Dagestani people (region of Derbent) after the Arab conquests in the 8th century. The first Muslim state in Russia was Volga Bulgaria (922). The Tatars inherited the religion from that state. Later the most of European and Caucasian Turkic peoples also became followers of Islam. Islam in Russia has a long presence, extending at least as far back as the conquest of the Khante of Kazan in 1552, which brought the Tatars and Bashkirs on the Middle Volga into Russia. The lower Volga Muslim Astrakhan Khanate was conquered by the Russian empire in 1556. The Siberia Khanate was conquered by the Russian empire in 16th century by defeating the Siberian Tatars which opened Siberia for Russian conquest. The Crimean Khanate was conquered in 1739 by the Russian Empire. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Russian conquests in the North Caucasus brought the Muslim peoples of this region - Dagestanis, Chechens, Ingush, and others - into the Russian state. The conquest of the Circassians and the Ubykhs turned this peoples to muhajirs. Further afield, the independent states of Central Asia and Azerbaijan were brought into the Russian state as part of the same imperialist push that incorporated the North Caucasus. Most Muslims living in Russia were the indigenous people of lands long ago seized by the expanding Russian empire.
Just after the incorporation of the Tatar khanates, the Christianization of the Muslims took place until the reign of Catherine the Great.
The first printed Qur'an was published in Kazan, Russia in 1801.
Another event in the Islam history of Russia was Wäisi movement, which began in the turn of the 20th century. The Ittifaq al-Muslimin party represented the Muslim minority in the State Duma.
Under Communist rule, Islam was oppressed and suppressed, as was any other religion. Many mosques - much like their Christian counterparts, the churches- were closed at that time. For example, the Marcani mosque was the only one acting mosque in Kazan at that time.

Islam today

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 clergy 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. In the 1990s, the number of Islamic publications has increased. Among them are two magazines in Russian, "Эхо Кавказа" (transliteration: ''Ekho Kavkaza'') and "Исламский вестник" (''Islamsky Vestnik''), and the Russian-language newspaper "Исламские новости" (''Islamskiye Novosti''), which is published in Makhachkala, Dagestan.


Kazan has a large Muslim population (probably the second after Moscow urban group of the Muslims and the biggest indigenous group in Russia) and is home to the Russian Islam University at Tatarstan. Education is in Russian and Tatar.
Copies of the Qur'an are readily available, and many mosques are being built in regions with large Muslim populations.
The majority of Muslims in Russia adhere to the Sunni branch of Islam. About 2% are Shi'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 Sunni Islam, as their republic split off from the Soviet Union, significant number of Azeris immigrated to Russia in search of work.

List of Russian Muslims

★ Marat Safin

★ Sultan Ibragimov

Russian Muslims and the Hajj

A record 18,000 Russian Muslim pilgrims from all over the country attended the Hajj in Mecca, Saudi Arabia in 2006.^[1]

See also

★ Islam by country

★ Jadidism

★ Religion in Russia

★ Religion in the Soviet Union

★ Islam in Ukraine

★ Islam in Belarus

★ Islam in Estonia

★ Islam in Poland

★ Islam in Latvia

★ Islam in Lithuania

References

★
1. Ministry of Hajj official site http://www.hajinformation.com/main/y1191.htm

External links

★ Chris Kutschera - "The Rebirth of Islam in Tatarstan"

★ ''Russian Islam goes its own way'' BBC

★ ''Russian Islam Comes Out into the Open'' The Moscow news

★ Russia has a Muslim dilemma Ethnic Russians hostile to Muslims

★ Islam in Russia

★ Islam in Russia at Qantara.de