Chechens fear 'Wahhabi' threatAs the war goes on, fundamentalist Islamists in Chechnya are becoming
bolder and more violent. By Umalt Dudayev in Grozny (CRS No.160, 19-Dec-02)
Even for a society used to violent death, the murders of Said-Pasha
Salekhov and his son by unidentified assailants in the village of Stariye
Atagi, 20 km south of Grozny, caused extreme shock and revulsion.
Salekhov, aged 50, was a descendant of the ancient Arab tribe of
Kureishi - to which Mohammed himself supposedly belonged - and was one of
Chechnya's most respected religious leaders.
The locals blame the November 21 killings on militants they call
Wahhabis - exponents of one of Islam's most belligerent movements - but
few will admit this openly. People fear for their lives - and for good
reason.
The pro-Moscow interior ministry in Grozny reports that since Russia began
its current war in Chechnya three years ago, some 30 prominent religious
figures and upwards of 200 regional and local government officials have
died at the hands of Islamic militants in the republic. The only reason
they were killed was that, at different times, they had had contact with
Russian troops.
"We are caught between a rock and a hard place," admitted the deputy
governor of one of Chechnya's municipalities, who did not want to be
named. "The Russians don't trust us as they think we collaborate with the
guerrillas. On the other hand, the Wahhabis are after us. As far as they
are concerned, we are all traitors, or kafir [Arabic for apostate]."
Non-governmental organisations in Chechnya estimate that up to ten per
cent of the population now supports the hardline Islamists. But nowadays,
they can be harder to spot than before. "When the new war began in
Chechnya, many Wahhabi militants shaved off their beards, bought
themselves fake papers and dispersed among civilian population," said
Magomed Bakhaev, deputy chief of police of the Urus-Martan district.
"Many of them have joined the regular police force, riot police and other
interior ministry departments. There is a sprawling, powerful network of
Wahhabi militants operating across Chechnya, which has hardly been
affected by Russia's anti-extremism effort."
Bakhaev said the clandestine Wahhabi network recruits young Chechens into
jamaats - militant Islamic squads - supplies them with weapons and pays
for undercover operations against Russian troops and Chechen officials.
"They are everywhere," he said. "They are watching for those Chechens who
collaborate with Russian authorities, and make lists of local officials.
Then the Sharia [Islamic law] court issues death sentences in absentia to
those people, which is then carried out at the earliest opportunity."
The militants call themselves "fighters for pure Islam", reject all
compromise, and say they are prepared to fight to the death.
Abdul-Hamid, 26, a jamaat fighter from Argun, said he had been wounded in
the leg during his band's recent raid on a Russian checkpoint near the
town. He is currently staying with his relatives in Grozny and undergoing
treatment.
"There is no mention of Wahhabis in the Holy Koran," he said. "This term
was coined by enemies of Islam to smear the true fighters for the purity
of our religion, in order to make us appear as some cult, or a bunch of
ignorant fanatics.
"But with Allah as my witness, they will not succeed in this. Our creed is
the same as ever - 'Islam is our religion; Koran is our constitution; and
Jihad is our quest. Death on the path of Allah is our ultimate reward'."
Fundamentalist Islam first appeared in Chechnya via the Arab volunteers
who came to fight the first war of 1994-6. Around this time the first
jamaats formed, which later developed into powerful Wahhabi militias.
Several of the Islamic radicals had fought the Soviet army in Afghanistan
and wanted to continue the struggle in Chechnya. They included Fathi, a
Chechen of Jordanian origin, and Khattab, a Saudi who died last spring
under mysterious circumstances. Khattab has since been replaced by his
deputy, known as Abu Walid, about whom little is known. Some say that he
is a Jordanian Chechen, others claim that, like Khattab, he comes from
southern Saudi Arabia.
The end of the first conflict left several Islamic groups in extremely
powerful positions. The Akhmadov brothers, Arbi Barayev and Abdul Malik
all became wealthy through kidnapping and taking over oilfields.
Post-war ruin and unemployment drove young Chechens en masse into the
hands of these Islamic militias. "Wahhabis offered young people something
the official Maskhadov administration was powerless to provide," Mohmad
Uvaisaev of Alhan-Kala told IWPR. "They gave them a steady income. It was
blood money, of course, but who cared?"
"If one person joined, he was issued a weapon and became a rank-and-file
mujahedin," recalls Akhmed Dalaev, a former member of Mezhidov's Sharia
Guard. "If you brought a group of people with you, you were issued a
wireless kit, an off-road vehicle, and weapons for everyone. You became an
Amir, or commander, of your group. We were making an average of 100-300 US
dollars a month."
By the spring of 1998, most Chechens were strongly opposed to the extreme
Islamists, their criminality and calls for the introduction of the Sharia
law.
Most Chechens are Sufi Muslims, whose religious practices are strongly
interwoven with old customs and the precepts of Chechen common law, known
as adat. Chechens worship their own saints - evlia - who brought Islam to
this mountainous country centuries ago.
This puts the majority of the population directly at odds with the
incomers, who have no respect for the Chechen Islamic tradition -
dismissing it as apostasy, ignorance and polytheis - while the Wahhabis
are accused in turn of being interlopers and troublemakers.
"The Wahhabi militias were manned by junkies, drunks and generally people
of dubious background," recalls Zaindi-Haji, a mullah from Pervomaiskoe
near Grozny. "To be sure, there were some honest acolytes of 'pure Islam'
among them, as well, but most of them were in it only for the money.
"They would stop at nothing to achieve their mercenary ends. They used
religion to brainwash young Chechens and cause splits in society. This was
a great evil for which they will never be forgiven."
However, just as support for fundamentalist Islam had all but vanished, a
new war in 1999 and Russia's subsequent brutal tactics against Chechen
civilians have driven young people back into the arms of Wahhabi teachings
and jamaat squads.
"Our young people have lost moral guidance," lamented Sharani Jambekov, a
professor at the university in Grozny. "The war has wreaked havoc on their
views and system of values.
"Every single Chechen family has lost someone in the war. Young people see
it as their duty to avenge the death of their next of kin, and that's the
main reason why many of them join Wahhabi movements."
Umalt Dudayev is the pseudonym of a freelance Chechen journalist.
This article originally appeared in the Caucasus Reporting Service, produced by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, http://www.iwpr.net.
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