The Tension at Russia’s Center: Radical Islam in Tatarstan

The July 2012 killing of an Islamic leader in Tatarstan shocked the Russian region’s leaders and citizens. Terrorist attacks are generally rare in the Volga Ural region. The collapse of the USSR opened up a new upsurge of Islamic religious activity, and mosques must still often go outside Tatarstan to find imams. Conservative North Caucasians and others are now actively infiltrating all Tatar mosques, and tensions, and sometimes violence, are the result.

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