Paul Goble's

Window on Eurasia

Religion Archive - June 2006

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Moscow’s Plan to Close Religions Museum Angers Muslims Vienna, June 30, 2006 – Moscow’s announced plans to eliminate the Museum of History of Religions in St. Petersburg by combining it with Russian Ethnographic Museum there into a single Museum of Civilizations will destroy a unique institution and work against the interests of Russia’s Muslims, a leading Muslim broadcaster says. more story...

Moscow’s Ties to Islamic World Could Make Russia a ‘Russistan,’ Chudinova Says Vienna, June 29, 2006 – The Kremlin’s ongoing efforts to form alliances with countries in the Islamic world might under certain conditions help Moscow to win a kind of victory over the United States, but such a victory, however welcome, would be Pyrrhic because it would help convert Russia into a “Russistan,” Elena Chudinova warned last week. more story...

Russian Officers Denounce ‘Clericalization of the Military’ Vienna, June 29, 2006 – A group of Russian officers has denounced what it calls the unconstitutional “clericalization” of the Russian armed forces and says that by promoting that development, the Orthodox Church and some in the higher command are spreading Islamophobia and thus undermining the military’s cohesion. more story...

Baku Blocks Young Azeris From Studying at Islamic Universities Abroad Vienna, June 28, 2006 – The Azerbaijani authorities reportedly are prohibiting young people there who want to study in Islamic universities in Iran, Egypt and other Muslim countries from going abroad as part of Baku’s broader campaign to prevent the spread of political Islam in that south Caucasus republic. more story...

Putin Said Exploiting Religion to Control Electorate Vienna, June 27, 2006 – Religion plays a major role in Russian elections, not so much by energizing the population to vote for one or another
candiate but rather by “sacralizing” the existing power structures and thus reducing the chances that Russian voters will select someone that those in power do not approve. more story...

Muslim Leader Decries Patriarchate’s Violations of Russian Constitution Vienna, June 23, 2006 – A leading Muslim leader last week condemned the Moscow Patriarchate for violating the Russian Constitution’s provisions calling for the separation of church and state and for the equality of religions, criticism that many Orthodox Christians say is wrong but the ever more Muslims argue is long overdue. more story...

Russia’s Religious Oppose Ending Deferments for Seminarians Vienna, June 21, 2006 – The leaders of Russia’s largest religious communities – Orthodoxy, Islam, and Protestantism – are individually and collectively speaking out against Defense Ministry plans to end existing draft deferments for those studying in their respective religious training institutions. more story...

Moscow Urged to Mobilize CIS Muslims Against U.S. Vienna, June 19, 2006 – Moscow should mobilize Muslim groups in the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States in order to block the expansion of American influence in that region, according to Geidar Dzhemal, the head of the Islamic Committee of Russia who has often allied himself with Russia’s most anti-Western politicians. more story...

Russia’s Muslims Shift from Building Mosques to Training Mullahs Vienna, June 16, 2006 – Russia’s Muslims have built more than 7,000 mosques over the last 15 years, but many of them lack either a congregation capable of supporting them or well-trained mullahs who can lead these communities. As a result, the country’s Muslim leaders are shifting their attention away from the construction of mosques to the training of mullahs. more story...

New Site Helps Muslim Women in Russia Find Muslim Husbands Abroad Vienna, June 16, 2006 – Muslim women in the Russian Federation who would like to marry Muslim men abroad can now turn to the first such website that seeks not only to facilitate marriages of this type but also to promote Islamic family values, acccording to one of its organizers. more story...

Ethnic Russian Converts Seen Threatening Tatar Dominance of Islam in Russia Tallinn, June 15, 2006 – Even as Tatars this week marked the 1,117th anniversary of the adoption of Islam by their forefathers in the Middle Volga, some of their number expressed concern that a recent wave of ethnic Russian conversions to Islam could reduce Tatar sominance of the Islamic community in the Russian Federation. more story...

Baku’s Approach on Radical Islam Said a Model for Post-Soviet States Tallinn, June 15, 2006 – Baku has blocked the rise of a radical Islamist movement there despite the fact that Azerbaijan has many of the preconditions „essential” for such a movement, and that very success should make it „a model” for Russia and other post-Soviet states, according to a leading Moscow analyst. more story...

Orthodox Church Fights Internet Dependence in Yekaterinburg Tallinn, June 14, 2006 -- Following a tragic incident in which a Yekaterinburg schoolboy suffered a fatal stroke after play video games twelve hours a day, the rehabilitation center operated by that city's Russian Orthodox Church eparchate is now working to combat a rising tide of Internet dependence there. more story...

Patriarch’s Decoration of Vodka King Outages Russia’s Muslims Tallinn, June 13, 2006 – Patriarch Aleksii II’s decision to decorate senior officials from one of Russia’s largest vodka producers has outraged many Russian Muslims not only because of Islam’s prohibition of the use of alcohol but also because of the cozy relationship between the Russian Orthodox Church and big business that this award calls attention to. more story...

'Moderate Islam' Is Not Equivalent to Islamic Moderation, Writer Says Tallinn, June 13, 2006 – „The difference between Islamic moderation and ‚moderate Islam’ is approximately the same as that between a water pipe and a sewer,” according to a leading Muslim commentator in Russia. And those who confuse the two, he says, are consciously or not undermining the Islamic faith. more story...

Islamic Revival in Russia Less than Meets the Eye, Muslim Leader Says Tallinn, May 29, 2006 -- Over the last 15 years, the head of the Nizhniy Novogorod Muslim Spiritual Drectorate (MSD) said last week, Russia’s Muslims have opened a large number of new mosques but they have done far less to transform either themselves or their community than Islam requires. more story...

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