Batal-Haji Sufi Order in Ingushetia ‘New Wahhabis in Eyes of Regional and Federal Authorities,’ a Perspective that May Trigger a New War

Paul Goble
    Staunton, Dec. 17 – Ingush and Russian officials have been attacking leaders of the Batal-Haji Sufi order centered on Ingushetia for five years, but they are now moving to attack all of its more than 20,000 members because they see them as “the new Wahhabis” and thus an alternative state formation threatening state power in that North Caucasus republic.
    Islam Belokiyev, an opposition blogger from Magas, says Ingush siloviki are now pressing Moscow to declare all Batal-Haji members extremist so that it will be easier to link them to Ukraine and the West and impose more draconian punishments (kavkazr.com/a/dlya-silovikov-eto-novye-vahhabity-v-ingushetii-prodolzhaetsya-presledovanie-batalhadzhintsev/33244173.html).
    But because the Batal-Haji order is so large and because its membership includes numerous officials, such an action could quickly lead to the collapse of the republic government, a development that almost certainly would lead to the intervention of Chechnya, especially since Ramzan Kadyrov has taken up the defense of the order.
    (For background on the Batal-Haji order and its travails in recent years, see  windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2024/11/moscow-attacks-ingushetias-batal-haji.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2022/11/russian-officials-accuse-influential.html and windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2022/11/chechnyas-kadyrov-takes-up-cause-of.html.)