History of Islam in Russia
[img=left] http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8e/Mechet_ljalja-tjulpan.jpg/180px-Mechet_ljalja-tjulpan.jpg[/img]The first Muslims at today Russia's territory was Dagestani people (region of Derbent) after the Arab conquests (8th century). The first Muslim state was Volga Bulgaria (922). 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 regions of the Middle Volga in the 16th century, which brought the Tatars and related Turkic peoples on the Middle Volga into the Russian state. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Russian conquests in the North Caucasus brought the Muslim peoples of this region-- Dagestanis, Chechens, Circassians, Ingush, and others--into the Russian state. 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. The lower Volga Muslim Astrakhan Khanate was conquered by Russian empire in 1556. The Khanate of Kazan was conquered in 1552 and Crimean Khanate was conquered in 1739 by Russian empire. The Siberia Khanate was conquered by Russian empire in 16th century by defeating Siberian Tatars which opened whole Siberia for Russian conquest. Most Muslims living in Russia are the indigenous people of lands long ago seized by the expanding imperialist Russian empire.
[img=left]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/99/Saint_Petersburg_Mosque.jpg/180px-Saint_Petersburg_Mosque.jpg[/img]
Just after the incorporation of the Tatar khanates, the policy of Christianization of the Muslims took place until the reign of Catherine the Great. The main event possibly stopped the oppression was Pugachev rebellion.
A large number of 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. Sufi rituals, practiced to give the Chechens spiritual strength to resist foreign oppression, became legendary among Russian troops fighting the Chechens during tsarist times. The Azeris have also historically and still currently been nominally followers of Shia Islam, as their republic split off from the Soviet Union, significant number of Azeris immigrated to Russia in search of work.
The first printed Qur'an was published in Kazan, Russia in 1801.
There is 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 virtual embargo of the Soviet era ended in 1990. Copies of the Qur'an are readily available, and many mosques are being built in regions with large Muslim populations. 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.
[img=left]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/1c/Kazan_kremlin_at_night.JPG/180px-Kazan_kremlin_at_night.JPG[/img]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.
The Sobornaya is one of four mosques in the Moscow to serve a Muslim population of over 2.5 million -- the largest of any European city. Today, its pale blue walls cannot contain the hundreds who come to pray. On Fridays and holy days, it overflows with worshipers, leaving many forced to kneel on newspapers outside, their foreheads pressing against the concrete. Muslim leaders say attempts to build more have been blocked by local officials, who fear angering Moscow's ethnic Russian majority. Attacks on mosques have been increasing. In September 2006, an Imam in the southern city of Kislovodsk was shot dead outside his home. During days of rioting in August, mobs chased Muslim Chechens and other migrants from the Caucasus region out of the northwestern town of Kondopoga[1].
Across Russia, Islam is thriving. Experts say the country is undergoing a change and that if current trends continue, nearly one third of Russia's population will be Muslim by the mid-century. There are also millions of Muslims from Caucasus and Central Asia that have settled in Russia. Since 1989, Russia's Muslim population has increased to about 25 million. There has been a growing interest in Islam amongst ethnic Russians as there appears to be a rising number of converts to the faith. More recently, author and ex-KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko, embraced Islam before passing away from radiation poisoning.
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.
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[img=left] http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8e/Mechet_ljalja-tjulpan.jpg/180px-Mechet_ljalja-tjulpan.jpg[/img]The first Muslims at today Russia's territory was Dagestani people (region of Derbent) after the Arab conquests (8th century). The first Muslim state was Volga Bulgaria (922). 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 regions of the Middle Volga in the 16th century, which brought the Tatars and related Turkic peoples on the Middle Volga into the Russian state. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Russian conquests in the North Caucasus brought the Muslim peoples of this region-- Dagestanis, Chechens, Circassians, Ingush, and others--into the Russian state. 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. The lower Volga Muslim Astrakhan Khanate was conquered by Russian empire in 1556. The Khanate of Kazan was conquered in 1552 and Crimean Khanate was conquered in 1739 by Russian empire. The Siberia Khanate was conquered by Russian empire in 16th century by defeating Siberian Tatars which opened whole Siberia for Russian conquest. Most Muslims living in Russia are the indigenous people of lands long ago seized by the expanding imperialist Russian empire.
[img=left]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/99/Saint_Petersburg_Mosque.jpg/180px-Saint_Petersburg_Mosque.jpg[/img]
Just after the incorporation of the Tatar khanates, the policy of Christianization of the Muslims took place until the reign of Catherine the Great. The main event possibly stopped the oppression was Pugachev rebellion.
A large number of 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. Sufi rituals, practiced to give the Chechens spiritual strength to resist foreign oppression, became legendary among Russian troops fighting the Chechens during tsarist times. The Azeris have also historically and still currently been nominally followers of Shia Islam, as their republic split off from the Soviet Union, significant number of Azeris immigrated to Russia in search of work.
The first printed Qur'an was published in Kazan, Russia in 1801.
There is 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 virtual embargo of the Soviet era ended in 1990. Copies of the Qur'an are readily available, and many mosques are being built in regions with large Muslim populations. 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.
[img=left]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/1c/Kazan_kremlin_at_night.JPG/180px-Kazan_kremlin_at_night.JPG[/img]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.
The Sobornaya is one of four mosques in the Moscow to serve a Muslim population of over 2.5 million -- the largest of any European city. Today, its pale blue walls cannot contain the hundreds who come to pray. On Fridays and holy days, it overflows with worshipers, leaving many forced to kneel on newspapers outside, their foreheads pressing against the concrete. Muslim leaders say attempts to build more have been blocked by local officials, who fear angering Moscow's ethnic Russian majority. Attacks on mosques have been increasing. In September 2006, an Imam in the southern city of Kislovodsk was shot dead outside his home. During days of rioting in August, mobs chased Muslim Chechens and other migrants from the Caucasus region out of the northwestern town of Kondopoga[1].
Across Russia, Islam is thriving. Experts say the country is undergoing a change and that if current trends continue, nearly one third of Russia's population will be Muslim by the mid-century. There are also millions of Muslims from Caucasus and Central Asia that have settled in Russia. Since 1989, Russia's Muslim population has increased to about 25 million. There has been a growing interest in Islam amongst ethnic Russians as there appears to be a rising number of converts to the faith. More recently, author and ex-KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko, embraced Islam before passing away from radiation poisoning.
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.
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