Dariush
Rajabian (BBC Persian,
Moscow)
“Islam is an
indigenous religion in Russia.” says Rushan Abbasov, Russia’s youthful first
deputy Grand Mufti.
“Russian
Tatars have been following Islam since the 8 th century. And that is the difference
between Islam in Russia and in the West.”
Sitting in
his office in Moscow’s newly built Cathedral Mosque, on Olympic Prospect, 34-year
old Mr Abbasov, an ethnic Tatar, is very much the voice of official Islam in Russia.
He’s wearing
a neat suit and tie, with a white turban and an Islamic clerical robe draped
over his shoulders.
He tells us
he’s been in the job for two years and relishes the challenge.
“The Muslim
community is growing faster than ever,” he says. “In Moscow alone we now have
over two million Muslims .”
 |
| Rushan Abbasov |
The imposing
gold-domed mosque, which can accommodate 10,000 worshippers, is one of Moscow’s
newest landmarks. It was opened in September 2015 with a grand ceremony
attended by President Putin, and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Just one
week earlier Russia had begun its surprise intervention in Syria – a move which
would eventually lead to a breakdown in relations between Moscow and Ankara.
In a speech
at the opening President Putin said the mosque would be a centre for tolerance
and multi-faith understanding. But some critics accuse the Russian government
of failing to address the real needs and concerns of its estimated 20 million
Muslim citizens.
“It’s all
for show,” says well-known journalist and commentator Maxim Shevchenko.
“They’ve
built this 200-million- dollar mosque for 10,000 people, in the centre of town.
Meanwhile the whole of Moscow with its growing population of Muslims has only
four mosques with much smaller capacities. Muslims in Russia are second-class citizens.”
The lack of
mosques was a problem which came up in almost every conversation I had with
Muslims in Moscow. Many were migrants, either from Russia’s restive North
Caucasus region, or from the Central Asian republics of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan
and Kyrgyzstan. They’ve arrived in Moscow in their hundreds of thousands, in
recent years, searching for work.
At a
restaurant in the historic Taganka neighbourhood, Izzat, the owner who is from Tajikistan,
told me hundreds of people now use the small praying area he’s set up for
customers.
“On Fridays
this place is always overbooked”, he said. “Muslims have no other place nearby
to go.”
 |
| Maksim Shevchenko |
“There are
many predominantly Muslim areas in the capital with no mosques at all,” says
Maxim Shevchenko. “The authorities oppose any plans to build new mosques. As a
result, most of Moscow Muslims have to travel a long way to prayers.”
Lawyer
Rustam Qasimov, originally from Uzbekistan, says the problem is that although
Islam is the country’s second largest religion, few officials really buy in to the
idea that Russia is a multi-cultural country.
“The Russian
Federation is supposed to be a secular entity, but it’s constantly tilting towards
Orthodox Christianity”, he told the BBC. “Anyone outside the fold is presumed
to be opposed to the government. “
Mr Qasimov
said attitudes like this were leading to a growing sense of alienation among
many young Muslims, and as a result some were turning to extremism.
Last July
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov told journalists more than
2200 Russian citizens were now fighting with IS, in Iraq and Syria. When
President Putin announced that he was intervening in Syria, this was one of the
reasons he gave.
Officially
the Islamic establishment in Russia supports the Syrian campaign.
“When
Western countries tried to depict Vladimir Putin as a villain in the Syrian war
we had to defend him”, says Deputy Mufti Abbasov. “This war is against a global
phenomenon of terrorism that threatens all of humanity.”
But when I
speak to worshippers leaving the mosque after prayers some rather different
views emerge.
“I am
against Russia’s military involvement in Syria”, says Aslanbek from Dagestan in
the North Caucasus. “Those bombs are being dropped on thousands of innocent
Muslims who have nothing to do with politics. Hospitals and schools are being
destroyed. How can one support such an act?”
“Killing
people is a condemnable act in any religion,” says Magamed from Chechnya. “I
don’t support Russia’s military campaign in Syria. Why should I? Any problem could
be solved peacefully. All the warring sides should sit down at the negotiating table.”
One striking
thing about the new mosque is that most if not all the clerics who run it are
ethnic Tatars, whereas most of the people who come to pray are from the Russian
North Caucasus or Central Asia. It’s a pattern which Maxim Shevchenko says is
replicated across the country.
“The entire
Muslim hierarchy in Russia belongs to the Tatars, “he says. “All official Muslim
clerics are Tatar and all Friday sermons are given in Russian and Tatar languages.”
What this means is that for many worshippers
prayers are conducted according to traditions which are alien to them, and
sermons are delivered in a language which they don’t fully understand.
This is
another factor, observers say, which could be leading young men away from official
mosques and into radical groups.
Askat, a
taxi-driver from Kyrgyzstan is a typical case.
“I have
lived here for so long, he says, but I don’t have a good command of Russian.”
Askat, tells
us he wishes he could go to a mosque his own neighbourhood, and jokes that it
would save him gallons of petrol monthly.
But under
his cheerful exterior a worrying sense of exclusion emerges. He shows us the
job adverts in the local newspapers. Each one openly says they are looking for a
“Slav”.
“How can I
get a better job here?” asks Askat. “People here don’t tolerate us.”
It’s clear
there’s a still a long way to go before Moscow’s Muslims really feel part of the
mainstream.
