Paul Goble
Staunton, Feb. 12 – Ramzan Kadyrov has not only promoted Islamic values but cracked down on those who turn to faith healers and fortune tellers, forcing the latter to publicly apologize in often humiliating circumstances. But despite that, since 2009, at least 700,000 Chechens have visited such people often reportedly in search of a kind word and hope.
In that year, Kadyrov created the Grozny Center for Islamic Medicine and put it in charge of this program and turning Chechens away from such practices by demanding that they publicly apologize for taking part (kavkazr.com/a/k-gadalkam-idut-za-nadezhdoy-kak-vlasti-chechni-presleduyut-okkuljtistov/33309770.html).
On the one hand, such efforts are consistent with Islam’s ban on such practices; but on the other, the insistence of public apologies is not because the Muslim faith also opposes humiliating forms of punishment which such public and often televised apologies by those involved certainly are.
And like most things in Kadyrov’s Chechnya, there is a clear double standard between what the powers there punish ordinary people for doing and what they allow officials to get away with, as the famous case of the head of the Gudermes district showed after he went to a healer to try to help him become a republic minister (tsn.ua/svit/skandal-u-chechni-chinovnik-poprosiv-chaklunku-privorozhiti-kadirova-282324.html).
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