The Radicalisation of Islamic Salafi Jamaats in the North Caucasus: Moving Closer to the Global Jihad ist Movement?
2012; Routledge; Volume: 64; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/09668136.2012.661933
ISSN1465-3427
Autores Tópico(s)Religion and Society Interactions
ResumoAbstract This essay shows how the various Islamic communities or jamaats that emerged in the Muslim republics of the Russian North Caucasus during the early 1990s have evolved since then. Originally conceived as peaceful religious organisations embracing strict Islamic Salafi principles, many of these communities have transformed themselves into fighting units sharing many of the traits of jihadist Islamic movements worldwide. By analysing the radical Islamic discourse and the strategies of leading jihadist fighters in the Russian North Caucasus, this essay also illustrates how their views, ideas and tactics have become similar, if not identical, to the beliefs that are being held and thepractices that are being conducted by fighters of global and regional jihadist movements worldwide. Notes Limited violence has also erupted in North Ossetia, Adygeia and the southern areas of the Stavropol district. These regions have not been analysed in this essay, as levels of violence have so far been significantly lower than in the rest of the North Caucasus. Although non-Caucasian Arab fighters played a key role in the spread of radical Wahhabi ideologies during the mid- and late 1990s, Chechens remained predominant in the rebel movement at the time. Also, very few North Caucasians, except for a few Dagestanis, played a key fighting role. The impact of Dagestani Salafis was much more relevant at the ideological level. VDagestan is the official website of the Vilayet of Dagestan, available at: http://vdagestan.com, accessed 10 February 2011. Islamdin is the official website of the United Vilayet of Kabardiya, Balkariya and Karachaya, available at: www.Islamdin.biz, accessed 10 February 2011. See http://kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2009/05/24/10708.shtml, last accessed 10 February 2011. See http://kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2009/11/13/11180.shtml, last accessed 10 February 2011. It should be noted that because of the difficulties in conducting personal interviews with individual fighters, this essay draws conclusions on the basis of existing declarations, current socio-political circumstances and the potential impact of foreign influences, as well as the personal impressions of the author's extensive travels in the region. Salafism has been often used interchangeably with 'Wahhabism', also in a derogatory way, especially in Russia. Wahhabism, named after its leader Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, is a form of fundamentalist Salafi Islam, which also calls for a return to the pure, unadulterated Islam of the period of the Prophet Muhammad. It is based on the most strict and rigid Hanbali madhhab (school) of Sunni Islam, and was the religious ideology of political unification of Saudi Arabia. Ibn Abd al-Wahhab adopted a very strict interpretation of takfir, which practically arrogated only to Wahhabis the name of 'Muslims', while all other Muslims were considered infidels. In this essay, the term Wahhabism and Salafism will be used interchangingly, especially when discussing the late 1990s and 2000s. The most notorious was the financial support provided by several charities such as Al Haramein and the Islamic Benevolence Foundation to the Chechen rebels, but Islamic foundations also supported radical Islamic groups in Dagestan (such as the Islamic Jamaat of Bagauddin Kebedov). Some charities also tried to influence the actions and views of Muslims in Kabardino-Balkariya, although they proved less successful. Bagauddin and Abbas Kebedov and Akhamad-kadi Akhtaev received a traditional Islamic education from local Sufi sheikhs who headed the various underground maktabis and maddrassas in the northern areas of mountainous Dagestan. The programme of the all-Union IRP openly stated its adherence to the principle that Islam and politics cannot and should not be separated. 'Following the path of God' was seen as the only way out of the social and political crisis that engulfed the region. However, members of the party upheld different views regarding the place of Islam in society and disagreed on the models of a future Islamic state. Therefore, despite its considerable political ambition as a party of all the Muslims of the Soviet Union (later the Russian Federation), the IRP failed to develop a comprehensive ideology and a coherent internal structure (Gammer Citation2004, p. 153). The actual practice of calling someone a non-believer is called 'takfir'. Sermon by Bagauddin Mukhammad, 'Priznaki smerti', 22 August 1997, available at: http://imamtv.com/play168.htm, accessed 12 November 2009. 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Dagestan became the vilayet of Dagestan, Chechnya the vilayet of Nokhchiicho, Ingushetia the vilayet of Ghalghaicho, Ossetia the vilayet of Iriston, Stavropol Krai the vilayet of the Nogai Steppe and Karachaevo-Cherkessiya and Kabardino-Balkariya the unified vilayet of Balkariya, Kabarda and Karachai. In summer 2009, the vilayet of Iriston was abolished and its lands were annexed to the vilayet of Ghalghaicho. 'Sheikh Sayeed of Buriatiya: How I Went to Jihad and What I have Seen There', KavkazCenter, 25 November 2008, available at: http://www.kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2008/11/25/10342.shtml, accessed 10 February 2010. 'Amir Seifullakh, "Dzhikhad protiv verootstupnikov"', KavkazCenter, 10 March 2007, available at: http://www.kavkazcenter.com/russ/content/2007/03/10/49937.shtml, accessed 25 November 2009. 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'Amir Seifulla: o protsesse podgotovki k provozglasheniu Kavkazkogo Emirata', KavkazCenter, 20 November 2007, available at: http://www.kavkazcenter.com/russ/content/2007/11/20/54479.shtml, accessed 26 November 2009. On this point see, for example, Rasulov (Citation2006). Conversations of the author with local experts, North Caucasus, June 2008, June–July 2009.
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