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Russia lobbies to join Organisation of Islamic Conference
Jakarta, Feb 03: Russia is stepping up diplomatic efforts to join the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), on the argument that 13 per cent of the population in the former communist state is now Muslim, news reports said today.
Jakarta, Feb 03: Russia is stepping up diplomatic efforts to join the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), on the argument that 13 per cent of the population in the former communist state is now Muslim, news reports said today.
Veniamin Popov, head of Russia's newly established Islamic factor at Russia's foreign ministry, was in Indonesia last week to lobby the government - which leads the world's most populous Muslim nation - to consider Moscow's bid to become first an observer and then a full member of OIC.
OIC, with 57 member states, is the world's leading Islamic forum.
''If a country like Guyana, whose Muslim population is just nine per cent of its total population, can become an OIC member, why not Russia, whose Muslim population is higher than the total number of Muslims in Malaysia and several Asian and African Muslim states,'' said Popov, in an exclusive interview with the Jakarta Post.
Russia's 20 million Muslims account for 13 per cent of the country's 150 million people. Islam is the fastest growing religion in Russia, as it is worldwide.
''In 1991, there were 800 mosques in Russia. Now their number has gone up to more than 7,000,'' said Popov.
The Russian Ambassador for Islamic Affairs at large denied that Moscow's push to join the OIC was an effort to exploit growing anti-US sentiments in the Muslim world.
''This is not true. We want to improve our overall relations with the Islamic world, and economic ties can not be excluded in this context,'' said Papov.
Russian President Vladmir Putin was an invited as a guest to the 10th OIC summit held in Kuala Lumpur in August, 2003.
Putin's speech there won a standing ovation when he asserted that Islam must not be equated with terrorism.
Bureau Report
OIC, with 57 member states, is the world's leading Islamic forum.
''If a country like Guyana, whose Muslim population is just nine per cent of its total population, can become an OIC member, why not Russia, whose Muslim population is higher than the total number of Muslims in Malaysia and several Asian and African Muslim states,'' said Popov, in an exclusive interview with the Jakarta Post.
Russia's 20 million Muslims account for 13 per cent of the country's 150 million people. Islam is the fastest growing religion in Russia, as it is worldwide.
''In 1991, there were 800 mosques in Russia. Now their number has gone up to more than 7,000,'' said Popov.
The Russian Ambassador for Islamic Affairs at large denied that Moscow's push to join the OIC was an effort to exploit growing anti-US sentiments in the Muslim world.
''This is not true. We want to improve our overall relations with the Islamic world, and economic ties can not be excluded in this context,'' said Papov.
Russian President Vladmir Putin was an invited as a guest to the 10th OIC summit held in Kuala Lumpur in August, 2003.
Putin's speech there won a standing ovation when he asserted that Islam must not be equated with terrorism.
Bureau Report