We are still potential extremists for them

Coming back to the topic of building mosques in the Russian Federation, I would like to once again recall the figures characterizing this process. There are almost 1200 churches/temples in Moscow and only 4 mosques. You can see the contradiction. Looking at Tatarstan, we see, it seems there are more mosques here. But still they are not enough to the desired amount. “Desired” means such that would satisfy the religious aspirations of the Muslim Tatars in all cities and villages of the Republic. Few people will oppose if a mosque appears in their locality. Even Tatars who do not attend the temple will not protest in any way against the arranging a building for the performance of Islamic religious rituals. Everyone in Tatarstan knows that the mosque does not pose a threat to anyone. It does not call anyone to illegal deeds or violations of secular laws. It is true, such an opinion is widespread among the Tatars. Local Russians fear that mosques can incite Muslims to bad deeds. Unfortunately, it is difficult to prove the opposite to Russians living in the Republic of Tatarstan. Either they don’t believe or they don’t get it. Apparently, this is why they prefer to act “on the pre-emption”, having previously recorded Muslims as extremists, terrorists, fanatics.

The Russian authorities have two main ways to counteract the growth of Islamic sentiment in the country. The first way is to place their reliable people in all management positions in Russian Islam (from the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the Russian Federation to the mullah in the prayer house of a small village), i.e., those who are ready to denounce fellow believers, to report on the moods in the community, to conduct the veiled pro-Russian and pro-government propaganda, to inspire servility before the secular authorities, etc. The second way is to control the growth in the number of Muslim communities and mosques, to slow it down, forcing Islamic spiritual leaders to be on a short leash of the administrative functionaries. Indeed, without permission from above, you cannot develop religious activity, you cannot build a mosque, you cannot group the faithful people around you, otherwise they will immediately “sew on” “religious extremism” and bring you under the article of the law.

One of the consequences of the authorities work in these two areas of the anti-Islamic activities of the Empire is sabotage with the sanctioning of the construction of mosques. And don’t be surprised that after years of donating money to build a temple or prayer house, you still never get it. And this money, in the end, will be taken from you by representatives of administrative bodies under some false pretext. They can even stop the started construction and declare it subject to demolition due to violation of building codes. Like this!

You need to fight this by asking the imam about the progress of collecting money for construction, about the stages of obtaining permits, about specific action plans, thus encouraging him to raise questions with the local authorities, and if you do not find a response from the imam / mullah, then such questions should be raised for discussion by the general public. After all, freedom of religion in the Russian Federation is a right guaranteed by the Constitution, and by showing religious activity, you do not violate any laws.