November 24, 2000

Russia Opens Its First Islamic University; Top College in Japan Starts Branch in Tokyo Business District; Kuwait Institution May Adopt Dress Code

The Russian government has founded the country's first Islamic university in a move to counteract the influence of Muslims -- in Russia and abroad -- on its military campaign to reestablish control of the breakaway region of Chechnya.

The Russian Islamic University, in Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan, a predominantly Muslim republic of 3.7 million about 500 miles southeast of Moscow, was created ostensibly to prepare qualified personnel for religious