Siberian Islam is sometimes figuratively called "Islam at world’s end." Today Siberia is the northernmost region of our planet and its indigenous people practice Islam.
At present Islam is the second largest religion in Siberia after Christianity by the number of believers. It is essential to study the history of Islam in Siberia in order to understand certain particularities of social and cultural life of Siberian Muslims. Moreover, it will help to work out a competent national and regional policy of development on the territories, where modern Siberian Muslims live, taking into account the fact that most of the ethnical migrant workers, who are now arriving to Siberia for work and residence, are Muslims.
The topic of Islam in Siberia was forbidden for Russian scientists due to ideological reasons for a long time. Considering that targeted studies of Siberian Islam started only in the 1990s, the integral image of Islam historical path on the vast Siberian lands is still non-existent.
There is a very acute and controversial scientific problem of determining the exact time when Islam came to Siberia. Studies of Tomsk archaeologists helped develop a hypothesize that Islam penetrated in the Upper Ob area locally in the XIII-XIV centuries C.E.
Islam came to Siberia in several waves. At first it was associated with the influence of the Golden Horde, then with the political processes in the Khanate of Sibir, and finally with the resettlement of people from Volga Region and Central Asia. Different groups of Siberian Tatars adopted the new faith at different time periods and in different historical circumstances.
The current challenge of the project is to develop recommendations to prevent the spread of radical Islamic movements in Siberia. Islam and Christianity have coexisted here for more than four centuries, even though this generally peaceful history had its dramatic moments of enmity, which remains in the collective memory. Impartial research of the true nature of relationships between the Christian and Muslim communities in Siberia can "cure" the negative impact on collective attitude.
