Patriarch Kirill’s optimistic feedback about “the pious Islamic inhabitants” of Russia in latest days replicate the rising function of Islam in Kremlin considering through the course of “particular army operation” in Ukraine during the last three months, Andrey Melnikov says.
Whereas the warfare between Russia and Ukraine has not but taken on the type of the sort of conflict of civilizations Samuel Huntington described, the editor of NG-Religii says, it’s more and more the case that Moscow is delicate to the function of Muslims within the Russian Federation in it (ng.ru/ng_religii/2022-05-17/11_529_muslims.html).
Like Christians and Jews, the Muslim neighborhood contained in the Russian Federation is split on the warfare, with some supporting Putin’s invasion and others very a lot opposed and even going to Ukraine to battle in opposition to Russian forces. However Muslims are in a really totally different place than are Orthodox Christians, Melnikov suggests.
As a result of Ukrainians are Orthodox Christians as are the Russians, this battle is one between two Orthodox peoples. So far as Islam is anxious, nonetheless, there are way more Muslims in Russia than in Ukraine, lots of whom at the moment are serving in Russian army models there, and Muslim international locations have been extra supportive of Moscow than has the Christian West.
Consequently, each the Kremlin from the primary days of the best way and now the management of the ROC MP have spoken out way more warmly concerning the Muslims of the Russian Federation. On the one hand, this can be merely a tactical maneuver; however on the opposite, it might presage a brand new steadiness between Orthodoxy and Islam in Russia.
On the very least, some Muslim leaders within the Russian Federation are more likely to check the waters to see how far the pendulum has swung, hopeful that they will now translate their help for Putin’s warfare into a greater state of affairs for themselves sooner or later.
