God is Good: A Muslim Russia armed to the teeth

ussia is undergoing a demographic revolution that is fundamentally changing the country’s character, writes the American Islam expert Daniel Pipes in Washington Times.

In his October 20 piece in the Washington Times, Daniel Pipes quotes expert on Russian minorities Paul Globe for the observation that


“Russia is going through a religious transformation that will be of even greater consequence for the international community than the collapse of the Soviet Union.”



This may imply that soon Russia can no longer be considered a Western-oriented country as Russia’s demographic transformation is bound to have a profound impact on Russian foreign policy.



Right now Muslims make up 15 percent of the Russian population – somewhere between 21 and 23 million out of a total population of 144 million, i.e., 15 percent. But that is changing fast due to the Muslims’ much higher birth rate. Russian women have on average 1.4 children and in Moscow ethnic Christian women only have 1.1 children. It requires 2.1 children per woman to maintain the population.

Muslim women, in contrast, have an average of 2.3 children and in Moscow, Muslim Tatar women bear six children and their Chechen and Inguish sisters 10. In addition, some three to four million Muslims have moved to Russia from the former Soviet republics of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.

[link to www.d-intl.com]