Today Paul Goble is blogging about the Russian strategy to discourage Islamic extremism from flourishing in its cities – which also appears to include a ban on the establishment of any new mosques.  The result of this idea, Goble notes, may be counter-productive:

The first policy, enacted under pressure from the Russian Orthodox Church and Russian nationalists of almost all stripes, is a general refusal on the part of the authorities to allow more mosques to open in Russian cities (as opposed to in rural areas, where many have opened), even though the number of Muslims in many urban areas has grown rapidly since the end of the Soviet era.