Islam in Russia: 2 Million Ethnic Muslims Leave Islam For Russian Orthodox Christianity

From this article at 1 Muslim Nation I would like to bring the state of Islam in Russia to the notice of my conscious Muslim brothers and sisters.

You may have read or heard many Muslim as well as non-Muslim sources that claim Russia will  or could become a Muslim state by 2050 or atleast by the end of this century! The reality of Islam in Russia is however vastly different.

2,000,000 people left Islam Vs 2,000-5000 people embrace Islam!

According to information I believe to be accurate, since the collapse of the Soviet Union in the Christian Year of 1991, between 2000 – 5000 ethnic Russians embraced Islam. At the same time if the Russian and other news articles I’ve read recently are correct, more or less 2 million ethnic Muslims have converted to Russian Orthodox Christianity!

Certainly Islam is growing in Russia and alhamdulliallah, I’m happy to hear about our Russian Muslim brothers and sisters efforts in reviving Islam among Russian Muslims since the end of godless Soviet Union in 1991. Given in the lackluster support for dawah and reviving Islam from the socalled Muslim countries or the Muslim world.  Islam is in a much stronger position in Russia today than it was 20 years ago after the sad state of religions in Russia after 70 years of Soviet communist religion suppression.

However recently I’ve read some articles I think are genuine and more accurate about the real ground situation in Russia and the real state of Islam in Russia.

From this I think that Russia becoming a Muslim country in the near future is hype and a half baked conclusion drawn from inaccurate statistics and understanding of the real situaions of Muslims and Islam in Russia.

I’m sorry to crush the hope and dream of Muslims with good dawah intentions and the ambitions of Islamophobes with anti Islam intentions and Christians and others with their own Christian missionary and political agenda.

An Accurate Summary on Islam In Russia From Wikipedia!

Largest mosque in Europe: Grozny Central Dome Mosque in Chechnya, Russia

Please read the following extract from wikipedia that nicely sums up the real situaion about Islam in Russia.

The Orthodox Church of Russia is said to be concerned with the growing estimates that Islam is poised to become a rapidly growing minority and potentially a majority by the year 2050.[9] However, in a BBC interview, Russian demographer, Viktor Perevedentsev, dismisses the notion that Russia could become a majority Muslim nation and says this is a specter being deliberately whipped up by politicians with little understanding of demography. He acknowledges that there are very high birth rates among these population groups but insists they merely reflect an earlier stage of development and will ultimately fall. In 50 years’ time, he says, Muslims will still be a small part of Russia’s overall population.[10] While various Muslim sources claim that Islam is the fastest growing religion in Russia and that ethnic Russians are converting to Islam in large numbers, Roman Silantyev, the executive secretary of the Interreligious Council of Russia denounces this as a myth.[11]

Silantyev states that in recent years more than two million people from various ethnic Muslim backgrounds including Tatar, Azeri, Ingush, Kazakh, etc. have converted from Islam to Orthodox Christianity in Russia, while the number of ethnic Russians who have converted to Islam is between two thousand and five thousand. Silantyev stated most of the converts are Muslims by birth who were non-practicing, while Muslims who regularly attend mosque rarely convert. He said that the conversions happen not so much due to proselytization but instead due to the influence of the dominant Russian culture, which is Orthodox Christian.[11] Silantyev also claimed that that as confirmed by many sources including Muslim sources, after every major terrorist incident conducted by Islamic extremists in Russia, thousands, or possibly even tens of thousands of Muslims convert to Christianity. For example, Silantyev noted that after the Beslan School Massacre in North Ossetia, the proportion of Muslims in North Ossetia decreased by 30%, while in Beslan itself, where Muslims had comprised between 30 to 40% of the population, their number has decreased at least by half.[11]

The relations between the Russian Orthodox Church and Islam in Russia are very difficult and controversial. We can single out two groups: one can be called “For cooperation with Islam” and the second “Against Islam”. Their followers have different views on the problems of proselytism, inter-religion dialogue, the religious policy of the state, and the foreign policy of Russia.[12]

According to an official estimate conducted by the Russian Inter-religious Council, approximately 400 Russian Orthodox clergy belong to traditionally Muslim ethnic groups, 20 percent of Tatars are Christian, and 70 percent of interfaith marriages result in the Muslim spouse converting to Christianity. At the same time, the expert accounts for the small number of ethnic Orthodox people who have adopted Islam since 1990, among other things, by the fact that ‘for some reason Russians seem to be more willing to join sects than Islam’.[11]

In the years since the Beslan tragedy, North Ossetian security officials have sought to close down all independent Muslim organizations there. Towards this end, the authorities in Beslan and across North Ossetia arrested numerous independent Muslim leaders, sometimes even planting evidence on them and sentencing them to confinement in prison camps. And fearing arrest, other Muslim leaders either stopped preaching in public or fled the republic.[13] .

According to the Russian newspaper “Nasha Versiya”, “Many children who survived the terrorist act and the parents of those who did not have been baptized, despite the fact that earlier they considered themselves Muslims. And those residents of Beslan who died, including Muslims, have been buried according to Orthodox custom, and none of their relatives has complained.” [13] However, some of those who convert quickly fall away from the faith, and at least some of these get radicalized and join Islamist organizations.[13]

At the same time, there is a small but growing number of Russian converts to Islam.[14] Notable Russian converts to Islam include Vladimir Khodov and Alexander Litvinenko, a defector from Russian intelligence, who converted on his deathbed.

Source: Wikipedia: Islam in Russia Article

Will you spread this news and help Russia Islam and Dawah to Muslims & Non-Muslims? May Allah Be Please With You.
See Also Some News on Islam in Uzbekistan