Russian Muslims (Russian: русские мусульмане) are an ethno-religious groupofRussians and related ethnic groups, who had converted to Islam and were able to preserve their Russian identity.
Former priest of Russian Orthodox Church, Russian Muslim Ali Vyacheslav Polosin, ideological inspirer of the Russian Muslims’ organization “Straight Path” (Russian: Прямой путь) declared the population of ethnic Russians who converted to Islam to be approximately 10,000.
Department for External Church Relations of the Russian Orthodox Church evaluated their total population as 250-300 and gave the following statistical data concerning their number in Regions: Republic of Karelia - 10, Samara Oblast - 9, Sakha Republic – 8, Saratov Oblast – 8, Ivanovo Oblast – 4, Vladimir Oblast – 1.
But this Department doesn’t clear how they counted the given numbers.[1] Russian sociologist Islamic expert, former executive secretary of the Interreligious Council of Russia (IIRC) Roman Silantyev in 2007 declared that the number of the Russians who converted to Islam in the last 15 years are 3,000.[2]
According to the Supreme Mufti of Kazakhstan, Absattar Derbisali in 2003 in Kazakhstan the number of Russian Muslims reached 50,000.[3] According to the results of 2009 Kazakhstan census there are 54,227 Russians, who are Muslims by faith.[4] But these numbers include mostly people from mixed Russian-Kazakh families, like Russian women, married to Kazakh men.[citation needed]
In January-June 2014 52 ethnic Russians in Turkey converted to Islam according to the Presidency of Religious Affairs.[5]
Some Russian Muslims are adherents of radical Islamism and connected with Northern-Caucasian Islamic insurgency.
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