Number of Russians adopting Islam swelling

By: Khadija Chinese

MOSCOW, Russia: The number of people adopting Islam – religion of love and peace which abhors every kind of biases and terrorism - in Russia is increasing from day to day, reports said.

In Moscow alone “around 20,000 people have welcomed Islam from January to October,” Islam Online website quoted a source in the Russian Council of Muftis as saying.

In 2002, 12,450 people adopted the religion during the same period; in 2003 the figure was 15,300.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the source said 60 per cent of the new converts are Russian nationals who had never embraced any religion, the website reported. 75 per cent of them are young women aged from 17 to 21. The source added that the campaign against Islam in Russia, “with every veiled woman being called a suicide-bomber encourages more people to seek more information about this faith and when they do they eventually embrace it.”

According to a 2003 census Russia has a Muslim population of 23 million representing roughly 15 percent of its 145 million population. Two million Muslims reside in the capital Moscow.

Meanwhile, the Russian Muslims do not have any worth mentioning role or influence neither in the government nor in the political life of Russia. There are no Muslims in the higher echelons of the Russian government.

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