Putin Aide Reveals Huge Increase in Number of Russian Mosques
The last three decades have seen a record rise in the number of Muslim places of worship, a top official has said
Sadly, dear friends, not all Russian news is good news. In certain regions of Russia, Muslims have been building mosques at lightning speed — around 7,000 new mosques over the past 30 years or so. That’s a big number. As far as I know, nothing like this has ever happened in Russia’s history.
Thankfully, there are some silver linings around this dark cloud. Russia has over 85 regions, and in the vast majority of them, Muslims are a small minority. Only in seven regions are they a local majority. And while mosque builders have been fast, the church builders have been a lot faster. Over the past three decades or so, Russia has built over 30,000 new churches. So it’s easy to do the math — every time a mosque gets built on Russian soil, Russia builds four Orthodox churches . . .
Russia has witnessed a record surge in the number of mosques in recent decades, a deputy head of the presidential administration said on Tuesday.
Speaking at the XIX International Muslim Forum in Moscow, Magomedsalam Magomedov said the number of Muslim prayer houses has increased by 60 times in three decades.
In the Soviet era, Islam was tightly controlled, along with all other religions, and the number of officially recognized Muslim clerics was relatively small. The USSR also had a significant number of unrecognized Islamic clerics. In 1989, the authorities eased many of the restrictions.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, freedom of religion became a constitutional right in Russia, which saw a resurgence of Islam alongside other religions, primarily Orthodox Christianity.
“In 1991, the country had just 120 operating mosques and there are more than 7,000 of them now,” Magomedov told the forum. “Never in its history has our nation seen such numbers,” he added.
The deputy presidential administration chief also said that each year, up to 25,000 Russian Muslims make the pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca, known as the Hajj. A total of 350,000 believers from Russia have done so over the past 30 years, he added.
Moscow has consistently defended the religious views of Muslims during Koran-burning rows. This year there have been several cases of activists publicly tearing pages out of the Islamic holy book and setting it on fire, notably in Nordic countries. In June, a Swedish court allowed the Koran to be burned outside a mosque in Stockholm on Eid al-Adha, a major Muslim holiday.
Such incidents have drawn protests from Muslims both in the Nordic countries and abroad. The authorities in those states usually condemn the acts, while arguing that they are protected under freedom of expression laws.
Commenting on the developments, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at that time that it was “a crime to incite religious hatred,” and that Russia would always uphold this stance.
Source: RT
It is time to start a rigorous educational campaign about the fact that islam is a false religion. A good place to start is Dr Jay Smith on youtube. His videos are very informative and well researched
While good things are happening in Russia, the nation is still operating under the constitution written for them by the Americans in the 1990s, which views all religions as equal. Ultimately Christianity and Islam are mutually exclusive. To have both under a State that acknowledges neither as Supreme will ultimately lead to the State being the Supreme religion, as it has become in every country of Europe and the USA. That is to say, Secular Humanism becomes the supreme religion in a state that does not acknowledge Christ as King of Kings. It will be interesting to watch how God works this problem out in Russia. Russia seems destined to become the leader of the Christian world for the 21st century.