This Should be Fun to Watch

MOSCOW — Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin spoke out against construction of a large number of mosques for the city's booming Muslim population because many worshippers are not Muscovites.

Sobyanin told reporters late Thursday that a residency check revealed that "two-thirds" of the worshippers at the city's main Cathedral Mosque were not registered in the city of Moscow.

"These are either people from the Moscow region or migrants without residency permits," he said in comments carried by Interfax.

Analysts and a prominent opposition leader said Friday that the comments were discriminatory and risked inciting renewed ethnic tensions.
 

Russia has been rather patronizing to Muslim Theocratic governments over the years.  They've gone so far as to publicly recognize Hamas.   It's never been altruism, however.  It's simply been a way to discourage these governments from supporting the Chechen Muslims and other radical Sunni Fundamentalists throughout Russia.  And, it's been an effort to point the Muslim animosity towards the West and away from them. 

The by-product, of course, is that Muslims are not interested in short term amicability.  They are interested in nothing short of domination in the long term.  This includes Russia.  The more mosques and residents, the more influence.  That will work up to a point in Russia.