Senegalese Student Killed In Russia

Lamzar Samba (ITAR-TASS) April 7, 2006 -- A Senegalese student was shot and killed early today in St. Petersburg, the latest in a series of apparent racist attacks in Russia.

28-year-old Lamzar Samba, a student at the St. Petersburg Communications Institute, was gunned down outside a nightclub.

Investigators said he was apparently shot with a hunting gun decorated with a swastika.

The killing was the latest a series of recent attacks in Russia on dark-skinned foreigners and Russian Jews, particularly in St. Petersburg.

Human rights activists say authorities do little or nothing to combat such crimes.

(compiled from agency reports)

Russia's Changing Face

A mosque in Baksan, in the Russian Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria (RFE/RL)

THE COMING MUSLIM MAJORITY: On February 28, Russia expert PAUL GOBLE, vice dean of social sciences and humanities at Concordia-Audentes University in Tallinn, Estonia, gave a briefing at RFE/RL's Washington office. Goble said ethographers predict Russia will have a Muslim majority "within our lifetime." Since 1989, Russia's Muslim population has increased by 40 percent, Goble said, rising to some 25 million self-declared Muslims. He said 2.5 million to 3.5 million Muslims now live in Moscow, gving Moscow the largest Muslim population of any city in Europe. Russia today has more than 8,000 mosques, up from just 300 in 1991. By 2010, experts predict, some 40 percent of Russian military conscripts will be Muslims.
Goble noted that these changes have been accompanied by a "rising tide" of anti-Muslim prejudice. Public-opinion surveys reveal that up to "70 percent of ethnic Russians" express sympathy with xenophobic slogans. Goble warned that heavy-handed state efforts to "contain Islam" could backfire and cause groups to move underground, "radicalizing people who are not yet radicalized."