![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/Moscow_Cathedral_Mosque_2015-08.jpg)
This past Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin attended a ceremony commemorating the opening of an extravagant mosque in central Moscow, RT reports. The Leader of Russia spoke at the event in attendance with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Palestinian Leader Mahmoud Abbas, and Russian Grand Mufti Rawel Gaynetdin in attendance. The mosque is one of the largest on the European continent, and certainly the largest in Russia.
The Moscow Cathedral Mosque itself has been around since 1904. However, in 2011, the building was torn down and a new mosque has since been in construction in its place. This new mosque, though, is roughly twenty times larger than the old one, able to fit 10,000 worshipers inside of it.
The new and improved Moscow Cathedral Mosque, pictured above, is certainly a sight to behold, both on the outside and within. And with such a high profile given towards the event by both the Russian and the international media, with thousands of Russian Muslims in attendance at the opening ceremony, it certainly made them feel welcome in a country where, not too long ago, followers of their religion were stigmatized in Russian society.
There is certainly still quite a bit of Islamophobia in Russia, just as there is in many other predominantly-Christian countries around the world. Keeping Russians’ feelings toward Muslims within the context of recent history, the 1999 Apartment Bombings in many major cities around Russia, which killed over 200 people, have largely been blamed on Islamic terrorists. That same year, Russia launched two seperate campaigns to fight radical Islamist separatists in the Muslim-majority regions of Dagestan and Chechnya. In the case of Chechnya, Russian forces have had to fight a continuous Islamic insurgency in the region, although it has died down in recent years. And the September 11 attacks in 2001 certainly did not help to fuel good feelings towards followers of the religion.
Recently, however, the anti-Islamic rhetoric has been played down by the Russian government. Although ISIL-affiliated groups claim territory within the Northern Caucasus region of Russia, violence in the region has significantly died down in recent years. Vladimir Putin has also frequently praised the secularism of Muslim-majority nations such as Kazakhstan, Turkey, and Syria. And even still, he has increasingly cooperated with Iran, an Islamic republic, in the Syrian Civil War. He recently announced the establishment of an international anti-terrorist base in Baghdad, shared between Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Russia. The rhetoric from the Kremlin over the past few years has changed from a never-outright-stated anti-Muslim policy to simply an anti-terrorist and extremist policy.
The opening of this new, extravagant mosque only underlines this point. Abbas stated that he hoped the mosque would become “a center spreading the spirit of peaceful coexistence of religions and peoples”, while Erdogan said that the holy place proved that Russia was “gathering the variety of nations, uniting their common spiritual values, creating a single living space and setting a wonderful example for the future.” This is exactly the message Putin wants to get across: Russia is not an anti-Islam country; in fact, it is welcoming of peoples of all faith, including Muslims.
While the mosque is a good sign that Russia may be becoming a slightly more hospitable place for Muslims, the Kremlin certainly does not want all prejudice to be gone in the country. For the Apartment Bombings over 16 years ago this month, the Muslims, and in particular, the Chechens, were to blame; but today, while Russia is in the midst of an economic crisis and continues to be ostracized from the international community, there is a new enemy to point its finger at: America, the West, and Ukraine. Almost concurrently with the decline in anti-Islamist propaganda, there has been a surge in anti-Western propaganda coming in from Moscow. Putin now openly criticizes his “Western partners” more so than Islamism, a rhetoric which, by the way, propelled him into the presidency in the first place.
So while the mosque should rightfully be praised for what it says it represents on the surface, don’t forget the underlying reasons for the extravagant opening ceremony and the lavishness inside. It is easier to fuel mass propaganda and xenophobia against one group rather than multiple groups.