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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Russia's Corruption Stokes ISIS Terrorism |
| 2014-07-08 |
| [MoscowTimes] Ramadan began in Moscow on June 28, as it did throughout the Arab world. When that period of fasting ends one month later, tens of thousands of believers will gather at each of the capital city's four mosques. The structures cannot hold so many of the faithful, and, as always, the mass of worshippers spills over and fills the side streets. Such a scene might sound more typical of Cairo or Tehran, but it is just one face of the rapidly changing capital. Muscovites nervously joke that the city will soon turn into the Islamic metropolis of Moskvabad, but in that quip can be discerned the outlines of a very possible future. Russia is a Moslem land — an estimated 10 million to 15 million Moslems live here, or 10 percent of the population. Although this number is too small to put Russia in the same category as Egypt, Pakistain or Indonesia, it is large enough to seriously change the country's familiar cultural landscape. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |