AN EUROPEAN COUNTRY WITH 8 000 MOSQUES

A fresh look on the issue of islamisation of Europe in the article by Slovak journalist Juraj Mesík. Worth noting, that we not agree with some theses stated in the article, but in general the author has a point. 

Russian propaganda contends that we, Europeans, should fear our 3,8% of Muslims, while Russia itself presently has about 12-15% of ones.

Do you know, which of European countries is currently inhabited by 16 millions of Muslims? No, it's not about France - five millions, nor about Germany with its four millions of Muslims, nor about the UK's three millions.

Do you know, which European city is a home for 1,5-2 million Muslim residents, and probably around two million of Muslim migrants? No, it's not about Paris, inhabited by 1,5 million, nor London - 1 million Muslims. 

Do you know, which of European countries has eight thousand mosques?  If you have tipped for Russia, you are right. Russia is the country with biggest number of Muslim residents and mosques in Europe. And Moscow is the city with largest Muslim population among European cities. Of cource, if you don't consider Istanbul a European city an Turkey a European country.

Some of our local Catholic conservatives, Slovak fascists, nazis, as well as their generous sponsors from Moscow are like to frighten us by stories of how Islam will devour Europe and our traditional values. Worth noting, that we not agree with some second-plan theses stated in the article, but in general the author has a point. So let's find out how things are going with Islam in the country, where the funds for hysterical campaigns "against the Islamization of Slovakia" are coming from. Proceeding from assertion that Muslims and Islam bear in itself a serious threat to Europe, we can assert that modern Russia, in the words of a classic, is "a country where tomorrow means yesterday."

Perhaps, considering the scales of Islamisation in Russia, our baptized Communist and main Islam opposer at the Government (Slovak) could understand how a terrifying threat to the purity of the nation and its faith is his beloved broad-gauge railway* to Bratislava. What if Russia's Muslims will arrive to us by its means in addition to imaginary Russian wealth. 


* broad-gauge railway is used in a number of post-Soviet countries, mainly in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.

Back in 2014, the Mufti of Moscow complained that the city's four mosques aren't enough for 1,5 millions of believers. It goes without saying that hundred thousands of new Muslim migrants have arrived to Moscow since then, the number of migrant workers from Central Asia also hasn't decreased. Fortunately for them, another mosque has been erected.

In September 2015, Putin, Erdogan and Abbas, a brotherly trio that has reunited again not long ago, held a solemn ceremony of opening a new mosque in Moscow. Of course, it's not enough for millions of Moscow's muslims. Nevertheless, its size and capacity are decent - ten thousand seats, which is twice bigger than the St. Elizabeth Cathedral in Kosice, the largest Christian temple in Slovakia. 

We've already clarified that Moscow is an European metropolis with biggest Muslim population. However, that couldn't be said about the Moscow region at whole. At the same time Muslims make up 90% of local population of the North Caucasus regions - Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan. More tnah a half of locals in Bashkiria and Tatarstan also profess Islam.

Recall, that within the EU the biggest concentration of Muslims is registered in Bulgaria, around 10%. Next comes France - 7%. Overall, total number of Muslim population all over the EU is 8.3%. Frightening figures. For comparison, the number of Muslims in Slovakia is 0.1%.  

But let's back to the Europe's most Islamized country. The issue of Islamic terrorism in Europe is often mentioned in a number of European media as well as by Moscow's "internet-trolls." In the regard of the recent blast in St. Petersburg's subway, allegedly committed by 22-year-old Russian citizen of Kyrgyz origin, it may appear that the growing number of Muslims in the country is directly related with terrorist attacks. This opinion can be supported by the fact that the former KGB Lt. Col. drew Russia into religious and ethnic war in Syria. Recall, that Russian citizens constitute the third largest contingent in the so-called ISIS, and hundreds if not thousands of them will return to Russia when the war is over.

However, talking about the terrorist attack in St. Petersburg we must consider that the incident includes some pitfalls. Thus, a number of Russian analytics, including Garry Kasparov and Andrei Piontkovsky, pointed that the terrorist attack was commited shortly after a series of anti-government protests that had taken place all over the country; another key point is that the new the presidential campaign has been started in Russia. 

Commenting the subway blast Piontkovsky said "Putin will depart from power in the same way as he had gained it," drawing parallels between the series of explosions in residental houses in Buynaksk, Moscow and Volgodonsk in September 1999 and the current terrorist attack in St. Petersburg. Recall, it was the blasts of houses in 1999 what paved the way to power for the then unknown KGB colonel Putin. There is an opinion, presented in particular in the book "The Less You Know, The Better You Sleep" by David Setter, that the attacks had been staged by KGB in order to get an official pretext for the second Chechen war.

Theoretically, it isn't a big deal to hire a young Kyrgyz to deliver a parcel with unknown content and remotely detonate it in the subway. However, the effect of herd which seeks a strong leader, being driven by the sense of threat, can work once again.

But let's turn to another incident. Shortly after the grand opening of the aforementioned mosque in Moscow in 2016, Ismail Berdiyev, a member of the Russian Presidential Council on Religion, a Chief Mufti of the North Caucasus and an owner of four state awards handed personally by Putin, had expressed a bold idea. "We need to circumcise all women to end depravity on Earth and reduce sexuality ... t's necessary to reduce women's sexuality. If this were applied to all women, it would be a good thing," said the Russian mufti. That sort of circumcision is still practiced in remote villages of Dagestan. "It would be very good if the circumcision will be done to all women. The Almighty has created women to give birth and raising children. A circumcision does not prevent women to give birth."

The point is that the custom of female circumcision, ie circumcision of clitoris, small, and sometimes large labia in infancy has long been practiced in Muslim Egypt, Ethiopia and in some other countries in Africa and Asia, but it has nothing to do with European traditions. And now, the Russian mufti proposed to introduce it in Russia...

original by Juraj Mesík

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