[GarySpFc]

TG,

That was not the issue. Putin is no stronger in praising peaceful Muslims in Russia than Bush is praising peaceful Muslims in the US. The conflict between the two articles has to do with the percentage of ethnic Muslims in the Russian population and the low percentage with a commitment to their faith.

[vargan]

It should be said that Russia muslims are actually less religious than their ME counterparts.
Also they are (with exception of some chechen ones) very tolerant. I'd suggest they are uncomparable to ME or European muslims since ours had to live for centuries with local population.