Shariat Court Challenge to Ingush Regime ‘Unprecedented’ and Dangerous, Malashenko Says

Paul Goble

            December 15 – The decision of the Ingush teips to convene a shariat court on the issue of the September 26 border accord and to invite deputies from the Ingush republic legislature is “an unprecedented development” in the post-Soviet space and fraught with dangers for large swaths of the country, Aleksey Malashenko says (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/329188/).

                “If the Ingush decide that Islamic laws are higher than secular ones, then such courts could appear in Daghestan and then in Tatarstan,” the Russian orientalists who leads the research section of the Moscow Dialogue of Civilizations Institute. It would be better for all concerned if the deputies do not take part in any shariat hearing.

            But the deputies will have a hard time saying no on their own given that there is a long-standing tradition for them to take part in such discussions.  Yunus-Bek Yevkurov cannot play any role in such a hearing because he has been excluded from the Islamic umma by the Muslim Spiritual Directorte (MSD).

            Malashenko says that the shariat court will follow the normal patter: the kadis will ask each person involved in the dispute to respond after searing on the Koran that he will not lie.  What makes this particular case unique is that it involves a dispute with the republic parliament. No outcome will be easy to reach. 

                The Ingush spiritual leadership has already come out in support of the opponents of the border accord, he points out; and as a result, the participants in the shariat court will be inclined to take the same position.

            Akhmet Yarlykapov, a specialist on the North Caucasus at MGIMO, points out that the Russian government doesn’t consider a shariat court as having authority over secular institutions.  And because the court has no ability to enforce its decisions, that limits its ability to moral suasion. In this particular case, that may prove significant.

            “There are precedents,” he continues, “when decisions of a shariat court in the regions have been recognized by particular structures, but there one is speaking about a consensus of the population and the authorities. I am not certain,” Yarlykapov says, “that such a situation exists in Ingushetia.”  And that complicates matters.

            Meanwhile, over the last 24 hours, there were three other developments involving the disputed border accord:

·         First, the Yevkurov government has put pressure on businesses to fire two opposition activists. Each said that it was clear that the republic head was directly involved and had been pressuring their employers for some time. It seems likely others will lose their jobs as a result of the same repressive tactic (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/329199/  and kavkazr.com/a/davit-lichno-evkurov/29656459.html).

·         Second, Muslim leaders in Ingushetia have come together to memorialize the two Ingush who lost their lives in the recent bombing and to use the occasion to unite in opposition to the republic government over the border issue (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/329192/  and kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/329182/).

·         And third, two experts, Margarita Lange of the Guild of Interethnic Journalists and Yekaterina Sokiryanskaya of the Center for the Analysis and Prevention of Conflicts say that the failure of the authorities to release more information about the clash in the Kabardino-Balkaria jail between Ingush and Chechens has led not only increased the antagonism the population feels toward the authorities but sparked rumors that are flowing unchecked (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/329195/).