https://www.france24.com/en/europe/...trengthen-economic-ties-with-the-muslim-world
The Russia-Islamic World Forum will begin in Kazan, southwest Russia, on Thursday. The two-day event was first held in 2009 and aims to strengthen economic ties between Russia and Muslim countries. In the wake of a rupture between Russia and the West, these ties are now part of a shifting world order.
The decision to hold the 2023 edition of the Russia-Islamic World forum in Kazan is symbolic: the capital of Tatarstan, located some 800km east of Moscow, is seen by the Russian state as a successful example of multiculturalism and peaceful religious coexistence.
Russia is home to some 15 million Muslim citizens “in the sense that they belong to ethnic groups with cultural foundations linked to Islam. Not all are believers or practising Muslims,” according to a report from the French Institute for International Relations.
As a whole, Muslims make up 10% of the Russian population, with most living in the Caucasas [sic] – the area of land that separates the Caspian and Black Seas – and the Volga-Ural region.
Muslims have lived in Tatarstan, in the Volga district, for centuries and the Tatar population (descended from largely Muslim Turkic ethnic groups) is Russia’s largest ethnic minority group….
The Russia-Islamic World Forum will begin in Kazan, southwest Russia, on Thursday. The two-day event was first held in 2009 and aims to strengthen economic ties between Russia and Muslim countries. In the wake of a rupture between Russia and the West, these ties are now part of a shifting world order.
The decision to hold the 2023 edition of the Russia-Islamic World forum in Kazan is symbolic: the capital of Tatarstan, located some 800km east of Moscow, is seen by the Russian state as a successful example of multiculturalism and peaceful religious coexistence.
Russia is home to some 15 million Muslim citizens “in the sense that they belong to ethnic groups with cultural foundations linked to Islam. Not all are believers or practising Muslims,” according to a report from the French Institute for International Relations.
As a whole, Muslims make up 10% of the Russian population, with most living in the Caucasas [sic] – the area of land that separates the Caspian and Black Seas – and the Volga-Ural region.
Muslims have lived in Tatarstan, in the Volga district, for centuries and the Tatar population (descended from largely Muslim Turkic ethnic groups) is Russia’s largest ethnic minority group….
