Wednesday, August 12, 2020

Ingushetia Elects a Mufti Even Though It Doesn’t Officially Have a Muftiate


Paul Goble

            Staunton, August 10 – Isa Khamkoyev, who served as Ingushetia’s mufti for 15 years before his conflict with former republic head Yunus-Bek Yevkurov led him to resign in July 2019, has now been elected to the same position after his successor, Abdurakhman Martazanov, died from the coronavirus.

            But the administrative structure he headed and now heads again officially doesn’t exist as an Ingush court liquidated the Spiritual Center of Muslims of Ingushetia in January 2020.  That action made Ingushetia the only North Caucasus republic without a Muslim Spiritual Directorate (MSD), but despite the court’s decision, the Spiritual Center has continued to function.

            Tensions between the muftiate and the Magas government remain high largely because the muftiate’s leaders have not been shy about speaking out and the Ingush nationality and religious affairs minister, Ruslan Volkov (an ethnic Russian who is not a Muslim), has been openly hostile to the very existence of the MSD.

            Nonetheless, Magas has refrained from blocking the election of a new mufti and has turned a largely blind eye to the continuing activity of a structure it has no obvious replacement for largely because it fears that in the absence of a muftiate, the influence of Islamism radicalism will grow (akcent.site/mneniya/9223).

            Meanwhile, in another Ingush development, a Russian court in Stavropol extended the detention of Ingush activist Magomed Khamkhoyev, who has been behind bars since April 5, 2019, for supposedly attacking siloviki at the March 2019 protests. He will now be held until September 28, although his detention may be extended again (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/352890/).

            According to his lawyer, the Stavropol judge concluded that Khamkhoyev is a flight risk and might try to intimidate witnesses against him, exactly the same claims Russian judges have made at each step of his case in the past.

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