Despite Islam’s status as the most expanding religion in Russia (and elsewhere) where the number of adherents has risen 50% in the last two decades, practicing Muslims still only account for around 5% of the country’s population. A figure that rises to a mere 15% if cultural Muslims are also taken into account. Even Alexander Litvinenko, the murdered Russian dissident, converted to it as he lay on his death bed after suffering polonium-210 poisoning. But that’s merely a piece of trivia and not entirely relevant.
According to human rights organisation Memorial, though, a rather disproportionate one third of Russia’s hundred or so political prisoners who have been gaoled for their religious or ideological beliefs are of the Islamic faith. The judiciary’s frequent misuse of ‘incitement to hatred’ and ‘promotion of extremism’ laws, which were initially drafted to help counter terrorism, has prompted calls for such legislation to be repealed.
Coincidentally, last Friday (October 30th) marked Russia’s annual, and officially recognised since 1991, Day for Political Prisoners. But that’s also mere trivia. . . .
