Qolşärif Mosque in Kazan, belonging to the Hanafi russia muslim marriage center of Sunni Islam, is one of the largest mosques in Russia. Nord Kamal Mosque in Norilsk, is the world’s northernmost mosque. Islam in Russia is the nation’s second most widely professed religion.
Recognized under the law and by Russian political leaders as one of Russia’s traditional religions, Islam is a part of Russian historical heritage, and is subsidized by the Russian government. The history of Islam and Russia encompasses periods of conflict between the Muslim minority and the Orthodox majority, as well as periods of collaboration and mutual support. Robert Crews’s study of Muslims living under the Tsar indicates that “the mass of Muslims” was loyal to that regime after Catherine, and sided with it over its Ottoman rival. In the mid 7th century AD, as part of the Muslim conquest of Persia, Islam penetrated into the Caucasus region, parts of which were later permanently incorporated by Russia.
The Tatars of the Crimean Khanate, the last remaining successor to the Golden Horde, continued to raid Southern Russia and burnt down parts of Moscow in 1571. The Crimean Khan’s Palace in Bakhchysarai in 1857. Crimea was conquered by the Russian Empire in 1783. Islamic slavery did not have racial restrictions. Russian girls were legally allowed to be sold in Russian controlled Novgorod to Tatars from Kazan in the 1600s by Russian law.
Germans, Poles, and Lithuanians were allowed to be sold to Crimean Tatars in Moscow. In 1665 Tatars were allowed to buy from the Russians, Polish and Lithuanian slaves. Before 1649 Russians could be sold to Muslims under Russian law in Moscow. The Cossack institution recruited and incorporated Muslim Mishar Tatars. Cossack rank was awarded to Bashkirs. Muslim Turkics and Buddhist Kalmyks served as Cossacks. Bashkirs and Kalmyks in the Russian military fought against Napoleon’s forces.
They were judged suitable for inundating opponents but not intense fighting. A policy of deliberately enforcing anti-modern, traditional, ancient conservative Islamic education in schools and Islamic ideology was enforced by the Russians in order to deliberately hamper and destroy opposition to their rule by keeping them in a state of torpor to and prevent foreign ideologies from penetrating in. Captured Soviet soldiers of Muslim backgrounds volunteered in large numbers for the Ostlegionen of the Wehrmacht. Communist rule oppressed and suppressed Islam, like other religions in the Soviet Union. There was 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 embargo of the Soviet era ended in 1991. Mintimer Shaimiyev, the president of the republic of Tatarstan, in the Qolşärif Mosque, Kazan.
Russian Islamic University in Kazan, Tatarstan. Talgat Tadzhuddin was the Chief Mufti of Russia. Since Soviet times, the Russian government has divided Russia into a number of Muslim Spiritual Directorates. In 1980 Talgat Tazhuddin was made Mufti of the European USSR and Siberia Division. Since 1992 he has headed the central or combined Muslim Spiritual Directorate of all of Russia.
Putin has said that Orthodox Christianity is much closer to Islam than Catholicism is. There was large anger from mostly Muslims from the Caucasus against the Charlie Hebdo cartoons in France. Putin is believed to have backed protests by Muslims in Russia against Charlie Hebdo cartoons and the West. Putin has allowed the de facto implementation of Sharia law in Chechnya by Ramzan Kadyrov, including polygamy and enforced veiling. Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan opened Moscow’s Cathedral Mosque, 23 September 2015. A chain e-mail spread a hoax speech attributed to Putin which called for tough assimilation policies on immigrants, no evidence of any such speech can be found in Russian media or Duma archives.
Islam has been expanding under Putin’s rule. Tatar Muslims are engaging in a revival under Putin. A Muslim Tatar owned supermarket in Tatarstan sold calendars with images of American President Obama depicted as a monkey and initially refused to apologize for selling the calendar. They were then forced to issue an apology later. Anatoli Ragimkhanov and Rasil Mustafin, deputy development director defended the sale.
Chechen World War II veterans during celebrations on the 66th anniversary of victory in the Great Patriotic War. The majority of Muslims in Russia adhere to the Sunni branch of Islam. There is also an active presence of Ahmadis. The Muslim community in Russia continues to grow, having reached 25 million, according to the grand mufti of Russia, Sheikh Rawil Gaynetdin. A record 18,000 Russian Muslim pilgrims from all over the country attended the Hajj in Mecca, Saudi Arabia in 2006. According to the 2010 Russian census, Moscow has less than 300,000 permanent residents of Muslim background, while some estimates suggest that Moscow has around 1 million Muslim residents and up to 1. 5 million more Muslim migrant workers.