Paul Goble
Vienna, April 2 – At a time when the Russian media have focused on the possibility of greater union among that country’s Muslim spiritual directorates (MSDs), another trend in the Russian umma has passed largely unnoticed; but it may ultimately prove more important for that country’s Muslims and for the ability of either the state or the MSDs to control them.
An increasing number of Russia’s Muslim parishes are electing not to register with the Russian government as the law requires or to subordinate themselves to any MSD, thus making their activities far more autonomous and effectively recreating the Soviet-era division between "official” and "unofficial” Islam.
In Soviet times, many Muslim believers refused to register their communities with the state, something that was often difficult if not impossible, or to cooperate with ...