Paul
Goble
Staunton, December 2 – The desecration
of two tombs which the Sufis of Chechnya and Daghestan have long venerated by
activists for the Salafis, who call for “pure” Islam and see such practices as manifestations
of polytheism indicate that a full-scale war has now broken out between the
two.
The governments of these two
republics and the official Muslim establishment there (the MSDs) are on the
side of the Sufis, but the escalation of the conflict to this point underscores
both the growing strength of the Salafis in the North Caucasus and the continuing
inability of the authorities, secular or religious, to keep the situation under
control.
But perhaps even more disturbing for
Moscow is that this new wave of violence appears to have been sparked by Russia’s
intervention in Syria, an action the Chechen and Daghstani elites have
supported but that the Salafis, many of whom identify with ISIS or have even
gone to Syria to fight alongside, very much oppose.
In the new issue of “NG-Religii,”
Vladislav Maltsev describes the recent history of the Sufi-Salafi conflict and
suggests some of the ways the authorities are trying, so far unsuccessfully, to
suppress it and what they may try to do in the future (ng.ru/ng_religii/2015-12-02/3_kavkaz.html).
The current round of violence began “immediately
after the start of Russia’s military operation in Syria,” the religious affairs
specialist says. On October 9, unknown persons vandalized the mausoleum in
Shali of Sheikh Durdi, a murid of Kunta Kishiyev who spread Islam in Chechnya
in the 19th century.
Then on the night of November 16-17,
Maltsev continues, vandals firebombed the mausoleum of Sheikh Yangulbi
Dokhtukayev near the Chechen village of Kurchala. “Thousands of residents of the
district who had assembled in local mosques expressed their extreme anger” at
those who had carried out this crime.
Four young men were detained, and
the local MSD posted their picture online with the legend: “These people are
cursed by the All High and by the Chechen people.” They told investigators that they had been
influenced by the sermons of a Salafi imam in Daghestan that they had read
online.
As Salafis or Wahhabis and supporters
of “’pure Islam,’” they said, they consider the erection of such mausoleums and
piligrimages to them to be a violation of the principle of the oneness of God.
Commenting on this case, Oleg Orlov
of Memorial told Kavkazsky Uzel that “despite the desire of Ramzan Kadyrov to avoid
such phenomena, the presence of Salafi Islam in the North Caucasus is an
accomplished fact … [and] the persecutions [of its followers] represents a
desire for revenge, especially among the religious young” (kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/272842/).
Another
expert, Georgy Engelgardt, said that what was important about the case was not
so much the angry reaction of the population but rather “the very fact” that
the Salafis in Chechnya feel themselves sufficiently strong that they are
prepared to “challenge the religious and what is the main thing, the political establishment
of the region.”
The
problem is not confined to Chechnya, however. On November 20, interior ministry
forces began a mass detention of Salafi activists in Makhachkala, the capital
of Daghestan (kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/272727/).
They were supported by the republic MSD, but that was not enough to prevent an
exchange of gunfire between the Salafis and their opponents.
A local publication, “Novoye delo,”
may have added fuel to the fire by reporting that the decision to go after the
Salafis and to replace a Salafi-affiliated imam at one mosque was dictated by “the
geopolitical situation in the region,” an indication that the upsurge of
violence in the Caucasus is linked to Russian actions in Syria (ndelo.ru/news/novosti/1095/).
Maltsev asked Galina Khizriyeva, a
researcher on ethnic and religious issues at the Russian Institute of Strategic
Studies (RISI), how effective the authorities had been in supporting the Sufis
and suppressing the Salafis. Her answer was blunt: “the state is again acting
irresponsibly,” creating more problems for itself because of its thoughtless
approach.
She suggested that the officials in
the North Caucasus should remember that using force against the Salafis only
encourages them to respond in kind and that as a result, the authorities
themselves by their repressive moves are likely to spark even more violence by
the Salafis and more conflicts between them and the Sufis.
If that escalation continues, she
implies, at least part of the North Caucasus could descend into a religious war
and become ungovernable.
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