Paul
Goble
Staunton, September 17 – At the
request of the Ingush justice ministry, the republic Supreme Court has ordered the
liquidation of the republic’s Muslim spiritual directorate (MSD), a decision
the muftiate’s lawyers say they will appeal but one likely to have serious
consequences not only in Ingushetia but elsewhere.
On the one hand, the end of this administrative
structure will eliminate yet another organization that has stood up to the
civic authorities. The Ingush MSD was very much opposed to former republic head
Yunus-Bek Yevkurov who tried to close it only to be excommunicated by the
mufti.
But on the other hand, without an
MSD, the parishes and ulema of the Muslim community will become increasingly
independent of one another, making it likely that at least some of them will
move in directions that the authorities will describe as extremist and
certainly reducing the ability of Magas to control them.
It remains to be seen whether Magas
will try to create a new replacement MSD or whether other republics and regions
which also have problems with these structures will decide to follow the Ingush
path. Many Muslims would welcome that move because the MSD system which traces
its origins to Russian state policy in the 18th century has no basis
in Islam.
But this outright ban, which goes
far beyond what other regional and republic governments have done, suggests
that the Putin regime in its relationship with the Muslims of the Russian
Federation has moved into uncharted territory. (On this move, see doshdu.com/v-ingushetii-verhovnyj-sud-likvidiroval-muftijat-respubliki/, kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/340281/, ng.ru/ng_religii/2019-09-17/11_472_events03.html
and kavkaz-uzel.eu/blogs/342.)
A more immediate challenge to the
future of Ingushetia and its relations with its neighbors also happened today:
More than 200 people who were forced to flee in 1992 from their homes as a
result of the 1992 war over Ossetian occupation of Ingush territories had a
three-hour meeting with the Ingushetia’s procurator general (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/340322/).
They demanded that the Ingush
authorities take steps to provide them with temporary housing and ultimately
arrange their return to their historical homeland, the latest development in
the complicated history of what is known as the Prigorodny district conflict
and one potentially far more explosive than the September 2018 Ingush-Chechen
border change.
Prigorodny district was part of the Chechen-Ingush
ASSR until the Ingush and Chechens were deported in 1944. Then Moscow
transferred it to North Ossetia. In
1957, when the deported were allowed to return and the Chechen-Ingush ASSR was
restored, Moscow nonetheless decided to allow North Ossetia to keep the
district.
That infuriated the Ingush and when
they could, in the fall of 1992, they began a war to recover what they see as
their territory. In that conflict, which
has simmered ever since, 583 people died and from 30,000 to 60,000 Ingush were
forced to flee. Now, that Moscow has called for final border delimitation, most
Ingush see recovery of Prigorodny as a first order task.
Meanwhile, new Ingush head
Makhmud-Ali Kalimatov continued to fill cabinet posts, including appointing and
ethnic Rutul from Daghestan as head of the new ministry for foreign relations,
nationality policy, the press and information (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/340286/
and
And there were
three developments involving Ingush opposition figures jailed or facing charges. Ruslan Dzeytov had his detention extended to
December 25 despite concerns about his health (doshdu.com/ingushskij-aktivist-kotoromu-prodlili-arest-do-25-dekabrja-zhaluetsja-na-zdorove/
and kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/340296/).
Malsag Uzhakhov, the imprisoned head
of the Union of Teips of the People of Ingushetia, finally was given the
medicine he needs to deal with what appears to be a worsening heart problem (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/340279/),
and seven of the March 26-27 participants saw the charges against them reduced
(doshdu.com/semerym-ingushskim-aktivistam-sledstvie-smjagchilo-obvinenie/).
As a result, if convicted, they face
far shorter jail sentences than the ten years they might have been looking at.
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