Excerpt:
Muslims in Russia are divided over the question of whether mosques should be organized along ethno-linguistic lines as they are in Western Europe in order to help national communities survive or whether they should be non-ethnic, something many believe Islam requires but that would mean the increasing use of Russian in them.
At a Kazan forum this weekend on "The Importance of Religious Values in the Preservation of National Identity," the ways in which Islam has contributed to the survival of many ethnic groups on the territory of what is now the Russian Federation was at the center of discussion (www.islamnews.ru/news-26309.html).
Ildus Faizov, the first deputy mufti of Tatarstan, led off the discussion and argued that "only by holding fast to the Hanafi school will Muslims be able to preserve their religion and their national coloration in it," something that legal school of Sunni Islam gives greater scope for than do the other three.