Predictions of Islamization of Russia Set Off Media Firestorm in Moscow

Eurasia: New Series ^ | Mar 2019

[CondoleezzaProtege]

A suggestion by Ravil Gaynutdin, the head of the Union of Muftis of Russia (SMR), that the share of Muslims in Russia will rise from seven to 30 percent in 15 years and the even more radical prediction by Orthodox Archhpriest Dmitry Smirnov that Muslims will displace Russians by mid-century have touched off a media firestorm in Moscow.

Mufti Gaynutdin is not noted for radicalism, and his views as expressed to a Duma conference on Islam, were relatively calm; but Father Dmitry, head of the synod’s department for family affairs, is notorious for his extreme comments. The reactions to their words were even more alarmist.

It is certainly true that Muslim nations within the current borders of the Russian Federation have higher birthrates, lower mortality rates, and longer life expectancies than do Russians, although they start from a much lower base, and there are an increasing number of Muslim gastarbeiters who add to the total.

Those are all subjects demographers in Russia and the West have been talking about for decades, but over the last 24 hours, Russian media reaction was as hysterical as Smirnov’s language rather than as measured as Gaynutdin’s, who said that he was citing others whom he respects rather than coming up with the numbers on his own.

A useful correction to all this is offered by Russian journalist and commentator Maksim Shevchenko who points out that such predictions wildly overstate the situation. The number of Muslims relative to the number of Russians is growing but too slowly to lead to the outcomes Gaynutdin and Smirnov suggest.

[TheTimeOfMan]

It doesn’t matter if your terminal cancer is growing relatively slowly or very quickly - the end result is the same: a permanent descent into darkness.

[PGR88]

Russians are having the correct reaction to this.