For more than half a century, Al- Assad family ruled Syria with an iron fist, with reports of mass incarceration torture, killings and atrocities against the Syrian people. The stunning fall of Al-Assad family rule has been described as a historic event, nearly after more than 13 years of war, and after Syrians rose in peaceful demonstrations against a government that met them with violence, met them with all its military forces, including chemical weapons, weapons that meant to be used against the enemies, but only were used to kill its own people, and the remaining of those weapons were ironically destroyed in the Israeli and American airstrikes, instead of being used to defend our unarmed brothers in Gaza.

In 2012, the government used heavy weapons against rebel groups, including air raids. The unrest spread, prompting an armed rebellion that drew in regional and international powers. Of course the regime atrocities made the peaceful demonstrations spiral into a bloody civil war that was nourished and fueled by regional and international playes, during which hundreds of thousands of people killed and millions displaced.

Now, the 24-year rule of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad which resembled the rule of his father’s 30 years of authoritarian governance is over.

US and Israel shameful actions in Syria 

Before and after the fall of Al Assad, the actions of the US and Israel in Syria are beyond shameful. Since al-Assad’s dramatic flight to Russia last Sunday, and despite UN protests, Israel has attacked Syria more than 480 times, and launched a military incursion into the buffer zone that has separated the two countries since 1974.

Syrian weapons were used against Syrians, not against the enemies

Instead of using Syrian weapons against the enemies, instead of defending the defenseless unarmed Palestinian brothers in Gaza, the Assad regime used its military forces against its own people, and in spite of the non-ending Israeli provocations and airstrikes on Syrian lands during past months, he didn't respond, he didn't dare to defend his dignity, and the dignity of the Syrian lands and, instead stored weapons to kill his fellow brothers and sisters, and ironically were destroyed by the Israelis and Americans.

What made Israel dare to launch such attacks?

Israel has already tested the reaction of the Arab and Muslim world and the international community in Gaza, that remained silent and inactive toward its genocide against the defenseless civil Palestinians, so it feels free to commit more crimes, and is more enthusiastic to invade Syrian lands and other Arab lands defying the international laws and UN resolutions

Israel has carried hundreds of airstrikes on Syria, a country that was already destroyed by conflicts, wars and without an army or a government. 

On the other hand, the U.S. bombed 75 sites, claiming they were targeting ISIS. Of course the American claims are not acceptable, the US has never left Syria, under the disguise of fighting ISIS terror, and they were there to steal the Syrian oil.

US presence in Syria was to steal Syrian oil

Contradicting his own officials and the Republican leadership on a range of issues, who have insisted that the remaining forces were in Syria to fight Isis (which is an American made), Donald Trump has insisted that the US military presence in Syria is “only for the oil. Moreover, Trump  when he was president, admitted openly that their real motive has nothing to do with helping Syrians—it’s about greed for oil and power.

US and Israel support for SDF

To make things worse, the US armed the SDF, the Syrian Democratic Forces, which is a Kurdish-led coalition of US, backed up by Israel, and which occupyed Syria’s oil-rich regions. This group has been committing crimes and attacking Syrians who dared to stand up against their rule. In fact, the SDF is an extension of the Kurdish Separatist Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK), which Turkey, the US, and the EU list as a terrorist group. SDF's civilian and military leaders like Salih Muslim and Mazloum Abdi have never denied their connection with PKK, but as a movement, the Syrian Kurds have been forthright about their intentions not to pursue the historical ambitions of the PKK and carry out terrorist attacks inside Turkey, with the intention of grabbing lands. Instead, their goal has been to fight against ISIS, that threatens their very existence and secondly to survive in Al Assad’s Syria after the end of the conflict. It is worth mentioning that this group along with the PKK have strong ties with Israel, and they usually raise the Israeli flag in their demonstrations in western cities.

To be fair, the Kurdish problem is a controversial issue that cannot be addressed here without taking into consideration the history of their sufferings, and how this problem was used by enemies in the region and outside it.

What is clear is that the American actions in Syria aren’t the actions of a nation bringing peace or justice. They’re the actions of invaders exploiting a country in ruins. It is sad that Syria will have to endure more suffering due to the US and other powers endless greed. It is a shame that the world stay silent while the US and Israel destroy a country that has been devastated, and steal the resources from a nation that’s already struggling to survive. 

Gas and oil defined geopolitics and civil war in Syria

Russian interests in Syria

One of the main reasons why Putin supported AL Assad's regime was to ensure that gas and oil from the Arab Gulf States would not flow to the EU via the cheapest route which is through pipelines. Putin wanted to protect the dependency of Europe on Gazprom and Nord Stream, considerations which today are less important to Russia. 

After the fall of Assad's regime and in the event of stabilization of Syria, pipelines could be laid through Syria and Turkey and provide Europe with an alternative to Russian gas. This also explains as well the interest of Turkey in getting Assad removed, for its easy access to energy and lucrative transit fees. But also US has a dog in this fight, by pushing its own expensive LNG to Europe. Irrespective of this « pipeline-dream » Europe needs therefore to double down on renewables, and also include a big nuclear component.

If history has taught us anything, it is the greed for power and influence; it is gas and oil that defined geopolitics in Syria.

The danger of Sectarian divisions in Syria and Israeli interests 

Israeli strategies to split Syria 

Some prominent Israeli figures have spoken about their hopes and views of Israeli interests in Syria. Benny Gantz, leader of the National Unity party and a Netanyahu opponent, said that this was “an opportunity of historic proportion” for Israel. He called on policymakers to “develop our relations with the Druze, Kurds and other groups in Syria”, suggesting that Israel may be able to develop relations with groups who have traditionally opposed the coalition of armed opposition that deposed al-Assad.

Also The Israeli Times , talked about this in an article titled, “With Assad’s fall, the possible splintering of Syria arises hopes for a new Middle East”, and interviewed a researcher and former member of the Israeli military, who took Gantz suggestion even further, suggesting that Syria could be split into a series of cantons, each of them will be free to cooperate with external actors, including Israel.

“The modern nation-state in the Middle East has failed,” former Colonel Anan Wahabi, who identified as a member of the Druze minority, said.

The Arab and Muslim world should be aware of the dangers they are facing now, and should learn the lesson from history that justice, solidarity, stability and unity constitute a threat to enemies and their partners, whose dangers we do not realize. 

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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/nov/13/donald-trump-syria-oil-us-troops-isis-turkey

https://www.timesofisrael.com/with-assads-fall-the-possible-splintering-of-syria-buoys-hopes-for-a-new-middle-east/

• Anti-Semitism and criticism of brutal Israeli war crimes: A methodological challenge for the truth
• The myth of Anti-Semitism between methodological claims and debunking myths about Jews
• Palestinians and Arabs are the true Semites
• The Real Semites and Ancient Hebrews Converted to Islam

After the international criminal court has issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu, and his former defense minister Gallant for the genocide and war crimes in Gaza, Netanyahu immediately denounced the decision as 'anti-Semitic'.

Definition of Anti-Semitism

Linguistically, the term Semitic is a technical term used to describe a language group. The Semitic languages include Arabic, Hebrew, and other languages such as Aramaic. The term "Semitic people" or "Semites" refers to a group of people who speak or spoke Semitic languages, such as Arabic and Hebrew.

The real Semitic people   

Consequently, the real Semitic people are the Arabs and the real Hebrew people who didn't mix with black and white. 

Misusing anti-Semitism

Unfortunately, the definition of anti-Semitism is being “misused” nowadays deliberately to prevent bringing Israel to justice, and to protect it from legitimate criticism. Although criticism of Israel and anti-Zionism is always motivated by other factors, such as a peace orientation and/or human rights considerations, but the word “anti-Semitism” has often been used to wrongly label any tiny tentative criticism of Israel as anti-Semitic, and in most cases suppress nonviolent protests, activists and speech critical of Israel and/or Zionism. The Zionist controlled western propaganda misleadingly uses this term, in a political way, to refer to the hatred of Jews, which is absolutely not correct. 

Israel's Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing

And Under the umbrella of anti-Semitism, the brutal Israeli military machine continues its genocide and ethnic cleansing at an unprecedented level against unarmed defenseless people (the Palestinian people in Gaza), the Israeli war criminals brutally and illegally kill, slaughter, burn people alive, with the partnership and compliance of the United States and western governments, and institutions, backed up by western propaganda that distorts realities, keep the truth away from its own people, and even with the compliance of some segments of the western public. 

Among the false reasons for this criminal partnership in the genocide and complicity in the war crimes or compliance, is the misleading idea of anti-Semitism, and the victimization of the Jews, that is based on the methodological claims that the Jews were expelled after the Romans' destruction of the second temple in 70 AD. They claim that they lived in exile in various countries for many centuries, and returned to their homeland in Palestine.

In this article, we will not argue whether those Israeli claims are true or not, we will not exert any efforts to refute them, but we will direct some questions:

Are the current Jews who came from eastern European and western countries and occupied Palestinian lands, and called Israelis, are they the children of Canaanites? Are they the children of ancient Israelis? What do genetic studies say about that?

Genetic Studies on Israeli Jews

Scientific Studies proved that most of Israelis Jews particularly those identifying as Ashkenazi, can trace their ancestry back to Eastern Europe

Many recent and old studies have proved that at least the maternal lineage of the Ashkenazi Jews derives largely from Europe. Multiple genetic studies have confirmed that Palestinians and Arabs are considered the real Semitic, as their genetic profile shows a close relationship to other Semitic populations in the Middle East, particularly the pure Jews, indicating a shared ancestry stemming from the ancient Canaanites.

The findings seem intuitive, and refute the notion that European Jews mostly descend from people who left Israel and the Middle East around 2,000 years ago. Instead, a substantial proportion of the population originates from local Europeans who converted to Judaism, said a study by Martin Richards, an archaeogeneticist at the University of Huddersfield in England.

80% Ashkenazi mtDNA linked to Europe not Mideast

Moreover, the origins of Ashkenazi Jews remain highly controversial; Like Judaism, mitochondrial DNA is passed along the maternal line. Several studies confirmed that 80% of Ashkenazi mtDNA variation, have ancestry in prehistoric Europe, rather than the Near East or Caucasus. Consequently, the great majority of Ashkenazi maternal lineages were not brought from the Levant, as commonly supposed, nor recruited in the Caucasus, as sometimes suggested, but assimilated within Europe. These results point to a prominent role for the conversion of women to Judaism in the formation of Ashkenazi communities, and thus provide the foundation for a detailed reconstruction of Ashkenazi genealogical history.

Also Eran Elhaik, who is an Israeli scientist, and researcher at Johns Hopkins, in 2003, debunked the “Khazarian hypothesis, he proved that most Jews trace their seminal ancestry not to the Middle East but to the Caucuses and Eastern Europe. Elhaik gave evidence that the Khazars converted to Judaism in the eighth century.

The Thirteenth Tribe

Another noteworthy evidence, is the book of Arthur Koestler titled The Thirteenth Tribe, that provides evidences that Ashkenazis descend not from the Middle East  but, rather, from Khazaria, a medieval Turkic empire in the Causasus region whose royals converted to Judaism because of political reasons. All these proofs implies that Ashkenazis, who constitute half of Israel's current population, are occupiers, colonialist settlers with zero historical claim to the land of Palestine.

Arab Palestinians are Real Ancient Hebrews Converted to Islam

On the other hand, some other DNA studies found that Israeli and Palestinian Arabs share a substantial amount of genetic material with pure Israeli Jews. According to a detailed article published on Wikipedia titled: "History of Palestine"; several studies concluded that part, or perhaps the majority" of Muslim Palestinians are descended from local inhabitants who converted to Christianity then later on, converted to Islam after the Islamic conquest,

Also several studies conducted in the USA and different western universities revealed that Palestinians are genetically very close to pure Jews and other Middle East populations, including Turks (Anatolians), Lebanese, Egyptians, Armenians, and Iranians. Archaeologic and genetic data support that both Jews and Palestinians came from the ancient Canaanites, who extensively mixed with Egyptians, Mesopotamian, and Anatolian peoples in ancient times.

Arabs are the real Semites  

Between this and that, the undeniable truth is that the Arabs are more Semites than the Jews who are mixed with eastern Europeans, Ukrainians, Russians, Polish and Africans. Arabs Muslims and Christians are the true descendants of the Canaanites, and the real Semites. Moreover, the majority of Hebrews in Palestine converted to Islam in the past 1300 years.

So Palestinians are strongly rooted in the land of Palestine because their connection with the land is not industrial, not fabricated, or mechanical. They do not have a Plan B, to go back to another homeland. They are resisting their occupier by every means they have.

 From all what has been mentioned above, it is clear that the Israelis are being anti-Semitic to a true Semitic people, who are the Palestinian Arabs.

Beyond any doubt, Israel will not win, the ongoing genocide in Gaza has proved that. Only blind hearted and shortsighted people fail to see the truth.

 Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinians

https://www.nbcnews.com/sciencemain/most-ashkenazi-jews-are-genetically-europeans-surprising-study-finds-8c11358210

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonentine/2013/05/16/israeli-researcher-challenges-jewish-dna-links-to-israel-calls-those-who-disagree-nazi-sympathizers/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_the_Palestinians#:~:text=One%20DNA%20study%20by%20Nebel,in%20the%20seventh%20century%20AD%22.

015-10-20/ty-article/palestinians-and-jews-share-genetic-roots/0000017f-dc0e-df9c-a17f-fe1e57730000

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11543891/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_the_Palestinians

https://www.haaretz.com/science-and-health/2

The Ummah of two billion silent mourn the martyr Assinwar

By Dr. Fatima Ibrahim Al Menoufy

"وَلَا تَحْسَبَنَّ الَّذِينَ قُتِلُوا فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ أَمْوَاتًا ۚ بَلْ أَحْيَاءٌ عِندَ رَبِّهِمْ يُرْزَقُونَ" [ آل عمران: 169]

"And never think of those who have been killed in the cause of Allah as dead. Rather, they are alive with their Lord, receiving provision. Al Imran: 169

Assinwar's martyrdom didn’t sadden me as much as I did when I saw the Arab leaders in Brussels, calling on supporting the US efforts to stop the Israeli American and western genocide in Gaza and the new genocide in Lebanon. About what efforts are they talking? Its efforts in killing innocent infants, children, women and men? Its efforts in supporting the Zionists?  Its efforts to wipe the Arabs off the map? Its efforts of creating a new map for the New Middle East they dream of? Its efforts to subjugate and destroy them? Victory comes only from Allah. We do not need political or sectarian affiliation to differentiate between the right from the wrong. Assinwar’s martyrdom is a sign of the truth of Allah's promise.

The Zionist propaganda claimed that the Assinwar hided in underground tunnels among hostages, but Allah SWT made them expose their lies and document them by themselves. Allah the Almighty wanted the Zionists to document Assinwar's heroism with their own hands and tongues, by the pictures and videos they published. Undoubtedly, those videos and pictures show that he was shot in the forehead and the head, not in the back. He died while he was advancing forward without retracing back, he was embracing his ammunition. This picture of his martyrdom will make him an icon for generations to come. Assinwar drew his martyrdom with his own hands because he realized that life is just passing moments, that death is more important than life, that victory is near, and that martyrdom is life. He was martyred to tell the cowards that freedom is a decision, to tell them that he didn’t fear death, that there was no compromise and no neutrality for him. He met his creator as a brave hero; he died fighting among his soldiers not hiding in tunnels as they claimed.

(وَكَأَيِّن مِّن نَّبِيٍّ قَاتَلَ مَعَهُ رِبِّيُّونَ كَثِيرٌ فَمَا وَهَنُوا لِمَا أَصَابَهُمْ فِي سَبِيلِ اللَّهِ وَمَا ضَعُفُوا وَمَا اسْتَكَانُوا ۗ وَاللَّهُ يُحِبُّ الصَّابِرِينَ﴾ [ آل عمران: 146]

"And how many a prophet [fought and] with him fought many religious scholars. But they never lost assurance due to what afflicted them in the cause of Allah, nor did they weaken or submit. And Allah loves the". Al Imran: 146

His martyrdom will be a legacy for generations to come, it is the most beautiful painting of martyrdom, a painting full of heroism, honesty and love for encountering his Lord, a painting full of faith and certainty, a painting full of belief in God’s promise, a painting that exposes their lies that accuse honorable people of hiding underground, a painting that tells them: We are here in wait for you, we do not fear the forces of your evil, a painting full of heroism and pride, a painting of dignity and arrogance, a painting that reminds us of the honorable companions, reminds us of the era of the noble Messenger of Allah PBUH, reminds us of our great past, a painting mixed with the most sublime colors of martyrdom.

"قُلْ هَلْ تَرَبَّصُونَ بِنَا إِلَّا إِحْدَى الْحُسْنَيَيْنِ ۖ وَنَحْنُ نَتَرَبَّصُ بِكُمْ أَن يُصِيبَكُمُ اللَّهُ بِعَذَابٍ مِّنْ عِندِهِ أَوْ بِأَيْدِينَا ۖ فَتَرَبَّصُوا إِنَّا مَعَكُم مُّتَرَبِّصُونَ"[ التوبة: 52]

"Say: "Do you wait for us (anything) except one of the two best things (martyrdom or victory); while we await for you either that Allah will afflict you with a punishment from Himself or at our hands. So wait, we too are waiting with you" Attawba: 52

With the martyrdom of each hero, hearts crack and some imagine that the enemies are victorious, fear intensifies and some Muslims, think that victory is far away, and perhaps suspicions become bad; but we must remind ourselves of what Allah SWT has promised us in the Holy Quran:

﴿أَمْ حَسِبْتُمْ أَن تَدْخُلُوا الْجَنَّةَ وَلَمَّا يَأْتِكُم مَّثَلُ الَّذِينَ خَلَوْا مِن قَبْلِكُم ۖ مَّسَّتْهُمُ الْبَأْسَاءُ وَالضَّرَّاءُ وَزُلْزِلُوا حَتَّىٰ يَقُولَ الرَّسُولُ وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا مَعَهُ مَتَىٰ نَصْرُ اللَّهِ ۗ أَلَا إِنَّ نَصْرَ اللَّهِ قَرِيبٌ﴾ [ البقرة: 214]

2:214 "Or do you think that you will enter Paradise while such [trial] has not yet come to you as came to those who passed on before you? They were touched by poverty and hardship and were shaken until [even their] messenger and those who believed with him said, "When is the help of Allah?" Unquestionably, the help of Allah is near". Al Baqara: 214

(وَأُخْرَىٰ تُحِبُّونَهَا ۖ نَصْرٌ مِّنَ اللَّهِ وَفَتْحٌ قَرِيبٌ ۗ وَبَشِّرِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ﴾ [ الصف: 13]

"And [you will obtain] another [favor] that you love - victory from Allah and an imminent conquest; and give good tidings to the believers". Assaf: 13

The Ummah of believers does not die with the martyrdom of one of its thousands of leaders, but rather it produces thousands of leaders, and its strength will not be weakened by the martyrdom of a resistance fighter or hundreds, because victory and then martyrdom are the goals of the believers. Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the leader Abdul Aziz al-Rantisi, the Palestinian fighter and martyr Yahya Ayyash, the explosives engineer, who was one of the most prominent leaders of  Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, have gone, then the sons of the leader Hanniyeh have gone during his lifetime, but their martyrdom only increased his strength and determination, then the martyr hero Ismail Hanniyeh himself has gone, and the martyr Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, and today the hero leader Assinwar has gone, who met his Lord as a resistance fighter holding his weapon, fighting among his soldiers, fighting all the enemies, all the soldiers of evil who gathered to eliminate this Ummah, he died as a martyr defending his land, his honor, and religion, he died as a martyr defending the coward Ummah.

Abu Ubaidah said: If assassinations were a victory, the resistance would have ended since the assassination of Izz ad-Din al-Qassam 90 years ago. We work with the will of Allah and under His Care. A leader is succeeded by leaders, a soldier by ten, and a martyr by a thousand of resistance fighters. This land produces resistance fighters as it produces olive branches.

The battle that is taking place now is not being fought by the Zionists alone, nor is it against the Palestinians alone; rather, the forces of evil have gathered, united to eliminate this entire Ummah; the Ummah that has failed to play its role; that has failed to support its oppressed brothers, that has forgotten its great past, that has accepted humiliation and disgrace. It is a war of extermination to change the map of the Middle East to realize the dream of the Zionists and subjugate and humiliate the Arabs and Muslims.

The Messenger of Allah PBUH said: "The people will soon summon one another to attack you as people when eating invite others to share their dish. Someone asked: Will that be because of our small numbers at that time? He replied: No, you will be numerous at that time: but you will be scum and rubbish like that carried down by a torrent, and Allah will take fear of you from the breasts of your enemy and last enervation into your hearts. Someone asked: What is wahn (enervation). Messenger of Allah PBUH replied: Love of the world and dislike of death". Related by Abu Da’wud, 4297 and others.  Grade: Sahih, Al-Albani

This Ummah will not succeed until death is more beloved to it than this worldly life, until it overcomes its slavery to money and power until it returns to the Book of Allah.

Thousands, even millions, of martyrs chosen by Allah SWT have gone, the powers of evils imagined that they have eliminated the resistance and silenced the mouths, but Allah allows them to become more and more lost, to do more and more wrong, so they remain confused and doubtful about the truth, and to wander blindly. Even if they kill 2 million Palestinians in Gaza, there are still 4 million scattered throughout the world. Killing Assinwar or other heroes will never eliminate the cause.

Arabs were pioneers in documenting historical information about the Slavic nation

The most important thing that distinguishes the relationship between the Arabs and the Russians is the cultural exposure of the Russian and Arab nations to each other. Arab historians and travelers wrote in-depth reports and studies that dealt with the Russian character, revealing its characteristics and social lifestyle, defining its religious affiliation (pagan and then Christian), and describing its political and military behavior.

These studies were so deep and broad that they influenced and enriched even the contemporary Russian mind, and Russian historians considered them the first documented historical information about the life of their nation. On the other hand, the Russians were not less keen than the Muslims on such studies, but their work came - within the context of the phenomenon of Orientalism - about a thousand years later than what the Arab did. 

The Russians were described in a number of Muslim books before and after the era of Ibn Fadlan, as being tough, patient, and brave and victorious over enemies in the battlefields, to the point that Al-Bakri says about them: “The Russians have no farms or earnings except with their swords”!!

History of Islam in Russia

The history of Islam in Russia dates back centuries. 22 years after the death of our prophet Mohammed, peace be upon him, his followers came to Russia. They reached Today’s Russia in the 7th century. In 641 AD the Muslim army led by Abdul Rahman Ibn Rebia Al Bahli advanced towards the northeast of South Caucasus after the conquest of Iran and Jerusalem.

It can be said that the history of Islam in Russia begins with the Rashidun Caliphate (632–661 AD). First, Islam spread through the territory of today’s Dagestan, Muslims came to a city that is currently known as Derbent, which is located in Southern Dagestan. So the first Azan, call to prayer, in Russia, was heard on the lands of Dagestan, and then throughout the North Caucasus region. In the year 18 AH, Islam entered the land of the Eastern Caucasus (Azerbaijan). By the year 38 AH, it had permeated the Caucasus, finding fertile ground for rapid expansion. 

Actually, the preoccupation of the people of that region, in religious and doctrinal conflicts among themselves, helped accelerate the spread of Islam. Thus, the Muslims were able to control Baku, and the Islamic conquests continued until they took control of the entire region of Southern Daraya, and that was in the period extending from the year 56 AH until In the year 96 of the Hijri year

Islam spread widely through Muslim merchants and economic relation

In another part of Russia, in the Upper Volga region, which was considered a crucial Eurasian trade meeting point because of  its strategic position, Islam gradually spread into the Volga river basin through trade and other economic relationships with Muslim merchants.  Moreover, this region played a significant role in Islam’s penetration into other parts of Russia.

The adoption of Islam by Volga Bulgaria had a profound political and cultural consequences, it influenced religious policies followed by the rulers of the Kievan Rus. The first Muslim state within the boundaries of today’s Russia was Volga Bulgaria, which is now the territory of Tatarstan.

Following the victory over the Khazar Khanate in 737, the Umayyad Caliphate took over North Caucasus. After the spread of Islam in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, the region has been ruled by Muslim dynasties for 1200 years. During the golden age of Islamic civilization, and as a result of a central Muslim administration, the region produced many scholars of hadith and fiqh as well as prominent philosophers, physicists, and mathematicians.

Flexibility and tolerance of the Hanafi Mazhab helped in spreading Islam

Tolerance of the Hanafi Mazhab in Volga Bulgaria contributed extensively to the spread of Islam and allowed Muslim religious leaders to accept and acknowledge, local traditions and rituals which had existed before the arrival of Islam. According to some historical sources, wars between Volga Bulgars and the proto-Russians were not religious or ethnic conflicts, but they were driven solely by economic and political goals.

In the 10th century, the European Russians located around Moscow came into contact with Islam through Muslims traders. Currently, there are more than 10 million Muslims living in the Tataristan whose capital is Kazan, Bashkirdistan, and Ural regions, as well as in the Volga river basin. The second wave of Islamic expansion in Russia came with the Golden Horde Khanate in 1242.

Under Muslim Rule Russian churches and religious freedoms were protected, while Russians massacred Muslims after the fall of Kazan

Thomas Arnold's Preaching of Islam, 1930, explains to us how Russian orthodox churches were protected under Muslim rule. Arnold retold that the Muslim Mongol Sultan Muhammad Uzbek Khan (1341 AD), who ruled Moscow and Kiev, issued a decree addressing the Russian Orthodox Church in Kiev: “From (Sultan) Uzbek to our princes, great and small, and others: The Church of St. Peter is sacred, and no one is allowed to harm it by any means, or to harm any of its servants or priests, nor seize any of its property, goods, or men, nor interfere in its affairs, because it is all sacred. And whoever disobeys this order of ours - by attacking it - is sinful before Allah (God), and his punishment from us is death”!! This approach reflects the great civilized behaviors of Muslims throughout history.

In fact, this Islamic position toward the Russian Church reflects the tolerance and civilized attitude of Muslims toward other religions and is considered an enlightenment moment that is an extension of the days of the Companions of the prophet peace be upon him, when Islam entered the Caucasus region. Muslims did not interfere in Russians' administrations or in their religious rites, and they did not impose Islam on them; so many of them remained Christians.

After centuries, namely in the early 15th century, several independent Muslim khanates emerged. These khanates, that were originally Turkic covered almost all of what is now Russia, except the region between the cities of Moscow and Kiev where the Russian principalities were dominant. Being Muslim and of the Turkic ethnicity, The Ottoman Empire began supporting these small Turkic and Muslim states in that period. People adopted Islam in the Balkans, Karachay, Eastern Circassians, and Balkaria by the end of the fifteenth century. And Islam dominated most of Russia incessantly until these Muslim khanates were defeated by the Russian Empire in the 16th century and Muslims suffered extremely in the hands of the Slavic nation.

Kazan Massacre

Given the importance that the Volga River had on logistics and transportation levels within the Tsarist Russian Empire, the first thing the newly-founded Russian Empire did was to capture this region. In 1552, a Russian army composed of 50,000 soldiers invaded Kazan and massacred a huge number of Muslims. Following the fall of the Kazan Khanate, Islam was wiped out from these regions for 200 years, an era known as the “the silent period” by Muslims. 

During that dark period, mosques and Muslim scholars were absent from social life, and Muslims were deprived from practicing their religion in public, and they had to perform their religious rituals in secret. Forced to live in hiding, the Muslims of Russia, were forced to take part in all insurrections against the Russian Empire, including the Razin Rebellion, Pugachev’s Rebellion, and the Bashkir Uprising. On the other hand, the invasion of Kazan proved to be a turning point for Russo-Ottoman relations, which had been quite positive until then.

As a consequence, the two empires entered a period of wars and conflicts. However, the conflicting relations was in  Russia’s favors as it was now able to suppress the Ottoman-backed small communities, and expanded its influence as it became more powerful. With the annexation of Crimea, the number of Muslims in the empire naturally increased.

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1. https://www.academia.edu/42922165/THE_PREACHING_OF_ISLAM_A_History_of_the_Propagation_of_the_Muslim_Faith_First_Volume

2. https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rusya%27da_%C4%B0slam

3. https://en.insamer.com/russia-and-the-region-s-muslims-a-history-of-relations_1056.html

4. https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A5%D8%B3%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%85_%D9%81%D9%8A_%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%A7