Michael Vlahos – author of “Fighting Identity: Sacred War and World Change” is a frequent guest on John Batchelor’s radio show. John seems to cultivate friends with a pro-Russian world view. Another of his guests is Stephen F Cohen, Professor of Russian History at Columbia University (who is married to Katrina vanden Heuvel, the editor of the extreme leftist magazine The Nation). Stratfor’s (a private intelligence gathering firm) guests also frequently express pro-Russian perspectives.
Through the miracle of podcasting, now we can replay things said over and over to make sure what we thought we heard. Here is the quote that got my attention:
(Friday July 2, 2010 – 11PM hour, 8:20 into the podcast)
“…It [Russia] has a majority muslim population in Russia that Russians can’t admit to – and it is a tremendous fear for the future”.
That’s blatantly not true as stated. The highest estimate I can find is 10-15%. The only way you can possibly construct that statement of fact is comparing people who are actively participating in the Russian Orthodox church (about 6% of the population) with Muslim followers. The vast majority of Russians are still athiests or nominally Orthodox but not active in religion. (“Islam is becoming the dominant religion in Russia among believers”)
Or possibly a misstatement of a demographic trend like “in x years, if current trends continue, muslims will become the dominant religious group” or maybe “for Russians less than 20 years old, the majority of the children have Muslim parents”….
examples:
Russian Army will be majority Muslim by 2020 – sourced from Pakistan, a notably unreliable source”)
Muslim Russia majority in 30 years
By 2020, Muslims could be 20% of the population
Makes you wonder what else is disinformation or framed without the correct context..
The thing I don’t get is why are the pro-Communist libs in this country so pro-Muslim?
Especially if Mother Russia is having so many problems with them (i.e. – war in Chechnya)?
And another question: I believe China has a similar population percentage of Muslims as Russia, so why don’t we hear about problems there?
The first thought that comes to mind is that neither can tolerate freedom or individual autonomy. The Communist fans think that once the Communists take over, they’ll be in charge. The experience with Mao and Stalin suggests they’ll be the first ones killed. Totalitarian regimes don’t like smart people like college professors.
The main muslim group inside China are the Uighurs (wee-gerz). The Chinese Department of Homeland Security blocks access to Controversial Websites and bans searches on forbidden topics like the Falun Gong.
The only religious symbol/movement in China the U.S. media seems to care about is the Dalai Lama. My guess is they think he drew those cool paintings of melting clocks.