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Rais Suleimanov,
Ph. D. (Hist.), Head of the Center of Regional and Ethno-religious Research, Russian Institute of Strategic Studies, Kazan ARAB PREACHERS IN TATARSTAN IN LATE 20th - EARLY 21st CENTURY: WAYS OF PENETRATION, ACTIVITY, RESULTS
Religious revival going on in the whole of Russia and its individual regions after the disintegration of the U.S.S.R. which ended the epoch of state atheism in 1991, has resulted in the mass restoration of old temples and construction of new ones all over the country. This process has also been taking place in the regions of compact residence of the people believing in Islam. However, this natural spiritual drive of the Muslim population has been used by adherents of radical Islamic trends from various foreign countries in their interests, who had the aim of reorienting Russian Muslims to foreign religious centers. Such political aims in long-term perspective should have turned the Muslims of the Volga area and the North Caucasus into the "fifth column" in their own country and include these territories in the global geopolitical redivision in Eurasia. In the 1990s the arrival of foreign Muslim missionaries in Tatarstan was received as the desire of foreign coreligionists from countries of the Middle East to help the Tatars return to Islam.
The well-known Tatar theologian Farid Salman remembers that when he was the head of the international relations department of the Kazan spiritual board in the early 1990s, and when the first visits of Arab missionaries began, he often worked as their interpreter and they frequently asked him to cooperate with them as broadly as possible. In 1991, the teachers from Abd al-Wahhab University in Er-Riyadh who came to Tatarstan tried to persuade him to help them convert the
Tatars to "pure Islam." At that time he refused to cooperate with them, because he was farsighted enough to see where such "cooperation" could lead the Tatar Muslim umma to1. Unfortunately, there were very few people to turn down "help" from foreign coreligionists from Arab charity foundations.
The activity of foreign Islamic missionaries was at first concentrated on the organization of Muslim camps for young people. The first such camp worked from April 27 to May 3, 1992, on the grounds of the Young Pioneer camp "Solnechny" near Kazan under the patronage of the Saudi charity organization "Taiba." Among the lecturers were four Saudi Arabs, one of them was Mahdi Khanbali. The guests from Saudi Arabia were active in organizing cultural gatherings which were very popular at the time The Moscow branch of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), headed by Ali al-Amudi from Saudi Arabia organized courses of preachers of Islam in Moscow and Kazan which invited Tatar young people to study. Along with this, Arab preachers travelled across Tatarstan districts where they read lectures on various topics. Apart from Saudis, there were Arab religious teachers from other countries. For instance, on December 14-27, 1992, Usman Ahmed Hasan Ali from Sudan travelled across Tatarstan with a "charity caravan"2.
Open lectures of Arab missionaries were given not only at mosques or young people's camps. Whole concert halls were often used for the purpose. For example, in February 1992 the high government official from Jordan Walid Shuri Sapsug, and the representative of the World Islamic Organization of Assistance ("Saar Foundation" ) Ali Issam Saleh from Jordan spoke at the cultural and sports complex "Unix" of Kazan University. Ali Issam Saleh told the audience about the activity of this organization, noting that there was its office in Moscow which took under its wing 125 Tatars ("Saar Foundation,"
apart from doing educational work, rendered medical and material assistance).
In 1993 the representative of the "Al-Igasa" organization Abdel Hamid Jafar, known among Wahhabi Muslims under the nickname "Dagistani," made a trip to the Volga region. The "Al-Igasa" organization is known as the International Islamic Organization "Salvation" (MIOS). The mass media have paid special attention to this organization. According to experts, its heads connected with the Saudi special services, secretly financed Wahhabi Muslims all over the world, including radical Islamists operating in Russia.
In 1999 the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation submitted information to the mass media about Dagistani who headed the "Russian department" of "Al-Igasa" at the time, and spent four months each year in Russia, making trips to Tatarstan and the North Caucasus It was also reported that Dagistani was the imam of a mosque in Medina and fulfilled delicate missions of one of the Saudi special services. It became known that he delivered sermons to Muslims in Tatarstan and the North Caucasus at mosques and madrasahs. In some sermons Dagistani openly called for jihad against the "infidels". In 1995 the Russian authorities made a statement to the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Moscow, announcing him persona non grata after which Abdel Hamid Jafar known as Dagistani left Russia3.
In 1993 the Saudi charity organization "Taiba" signed an agreement on assistance to the educational process with the new madrasah "Yoldyz" in Naberezniye Chelny in Tatarstan. It became known later that the madrasah was actually turned into a training center of fighters during the 2nd Chechen war (1999-2001). In the summer of 1999 the graduate of this madrasah Denis Saitakov was one of the terrorists in a group organizing acts of terror in Moscow. It was also confirmed that the heads of the madrasah cooperated with the Chechen
field commanders Samil Basayev and Khattab, who organized field training for madrasah students. Soon ten more students were found to be members of terrorist groups. The "Taiba" branch in Tatarstan was headed by Isa Shebakhat, a citizen of Jordan.
In 1997 a branch of the "International Islamic representatives' organization" (MIPO) was opened in Kazan. It was created with the financial help of Saudi Arabia in Dacca (Bangladesh). That very year its branch appeared in Moscow. The official purpose of that organization was distribution and popularization of Islam all over the world. In 2001 the mass media reported that the plan of its activity was aimed at creating an "Islamic state" on Russian territory with its center in Tatarstan, which would include several parts of Russia.
At the time the Wahhabi trend of Islam was being spread in regions neighboring on Tatarstan. It was helped by the organizations "Ibrahim bin Abdulaziz al-Ibrahim" ("Al-Ibrahim"), "World Assembly of Muslim Youth" and "Committee of Muslims of Asia" connected with Saudi and Kuwait sponsors and Saudi special services.
The aims of the activity of these organizations, officially outlined in their operating documents, were quite similar, as a rule, and did not go beyond the framework of rendering material assistance to individual citizens, public and religious associations, and also assistance to organize religious education. At the same time, the mass media and special literature published quite a few negative assessments of the activity of these "non-governmental organizations" by scholars of the Orient and political analysts. They noted, among other things, that their humanitarian aid was accompanied with the creation of a ramified network of special organizations financed by Saudi Arabia, which was especially anxious to increase and support the spreading of the Wahhabi trend of Islam in public life on the territory of Russia, and thereby strengthen Saudi influence in this country. Among the real aims of these
organizations mention should be made of the strengthening of proSaudi sentiments in the midst of Muslim believers, their readiness for armed jihad against the "infidels," and also discredit local religious authorities and replace them with their stooges.
The Algerian citizen Bu Setta Abdurrazzak, who worked as a teacher at the "Muhammadia" madrasah in 1994-1997 and a representative of the "Taiba" charity organization, made a negative influence on the activity of the Muslim community of Tatarstan. During his stay in Kazan he interfered in the internal and personal affairs of the Muslim clergy, instigated madrasah students to clashes with employees of the local mass media, and created intrigues among the leaders of the Spiritual Board of Muslims. He also organized journeys of young men to religious universities of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait known for their fundamentalism3.
The already-mentioned organization "Saar Foundation," which began to function in 1992, also specialized on organizing Islamic youth camps and subsequently sending their participants to Arab countries for studies. This organization tried to open such camps not only on Russian territory, but also in Kazakhstan and Belarus. A branch of this organization in Russia was headed by Ali Issam Saleh from Jordan.
The regional charity foundation "Al-Harame-in Foundation" set up in Saudi Arabia in 1991 with a view to "rendering assistance to Muslim brethren in various parts of the world and distributing true Islamic teaching all over the globe worked on the same pattern. "Al Harame-in Foundation" is the leading charity organization in Saudi Arabia functioning directly under the patronage of the royal family and subordinated to the Ministry of Islamic Affairs of Saudi Arabia4. From 1993 representatives of "Al Harame-in Foundation" worked in the Volga area. Among its functions was recruitment of young men to go to Saudi Arabia to receive a religious education there. The educational
activity of this organization which was previously confined to organizing seminars and camps and publishing literature changed into recruiting volunteers among Muslims in Tatarstan ready to fight in Chechnya. During the first Chechen war in 1994-1996 the organization waged an active anti-Russian campaign in support of Islamic jihad in Chechnya.
By 2000 the Russian security agencies came to realize that the activity of such foreign "charity" organizations result in the emergence of terrorism on religious ground among Russian Muslims and financing of militants5. As noted by experts and researchers, humanitarian aid was accompanied with creating a ramified network of organizations under the guise of charity foundations financed by Saudi Arabia, which was especially active in enhancing and spreading radical Islam in public life in the Muslim regions of Russia6.
Penetration of Arab missionaries of non-traditional Islam for the region in the sphere of Muslim education in Tatarstan was especially successful in the 1990s. In 1993 quite a few Arab teachers arrived in Tatarstan, many of whom stayed for good. Husam Abdrahman came from Jordan, and he continues to teach the Arab language at the Kazan madrasah "Muhammadiya" to this day. Ahmad Abu Gaesh also came from Jordan to work at the "Yoldyz" madrasah in Naberezhniye Chelny. However, they did not confine their work to teaching the Arab language. They were striving for missionary and publishing activity. For example, Husam Abdrahman has issued a CD of religious content.
Another foreign instructor, Yasin Usman Abdella, a graduate from Islamic University in Medina (Saudi Arabia), who came to Tatarstan from Eritrea, organized a madrasah in Alemetyevsk in 1998 and became its pro-rector. Besides, he gave lessons to future imams of Wahhabi trend.
At the already mentioned "Yoldyz" madrasah in Naberezhniye Chelny there were four Arab teachers from Egypt, Jordan and Palestine in the 1996/1997 scholastic year. However, they all were expelled from Russia in 2000 after the closing down of this madrasah as one of the centers for the ideological training of Wahhabi Muslims who subsequently went to the North Caucasus first for military training and then fighting on the side of the Chechen separatists.
The Russian Islamic University in Kazan began work in 1998. At the beginning there were two foreign teachers - Salih Seikhan from Turkey and Muhammad Sadyk Awad from Egypt. Both were graduates from the Islamic University "Al-Azkhar" in Cairo. Later, more people from Turkey and Arab countries have arrived to Kazan to teach at the Islamic University: Muhammad Said Abdulla Kutb, El Said Zakaria Siraj El-Din, Abdulmohsin Ali Arif, Mustafa Myukerrem Karaers, and others.
Today there are only three Arabs teaching in Tatarstan: two at the Kazan madrasah "Muhammadiya" (Husam Abdurahman and Muhammad Mahmud) and one at the Islamic University (Abdulmajid Abdurakib Alawi from Yemen).
Members of terrorist organizations have frequently visited Tatarstan with a view to recruiting fighters. The Egyptian Ahmed Nasser from"Al Qaeda" came to Tatarstan at the end of the 1990s and stayed in the region up to 2004. When he returned to Egypt he was arrested and kept in prison until 2011. In 2012 he was killed in mysterious circumstances.
Arab missionaries were supported quite frequently by their Tatar like-minded persons. For example, Ramil Yunusov, who studied in Saudi Arabia in 1992-1997 and held the post of imam at the Kazan Cathedral mosque "Kul Sharif' in 2005-2012, was known as one of the propagandist of foreign Islam non-traditional in Tatarstan. He organized
three visits to Tatarstan of Ahmad Farid Mustafa, an architect from Medina, who had fought with Saudi mojaheds against the Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s. What was the purpose for inviting this man to Tatarstan to read lectures to Tatar young people?7.
However, the most notorious missionary was the Arab preacher Kamal al-Zant. He arrived from Lebanon in 1992 to study at the Kazan Medical University, and soon became very popular due to his sermons delivered in Russian at Burnayevskaya mosque in Kazan. Having graduated from the university, he started work as oncologist at one of the city hospitals, married a local Tatar girl, and combining work with reading sermons began to travel extensively not only in Tatarstan, but also to neighboring regions. As one of the ideologists of the "Muslim Brotherhood" in Tatarstan al-Zant soon began to publish his books and audio-lectures. In 2011 the Spiritual Board of Muslims of Tatarstan announced that his work ran counter to Islam traditional for the Tatars. Nevertheless, he continued to read lectures and deliver sermons at various mosques of Tatarstan without any license or permission. Without a theological education (he enrolled in the "Al-Jinan' Islamic University in Lebanon only in 2008, where he studied by correspondence), he was quite popular with Tatar urban young people. The keynote of his sermons was the idea of pan-Islamic unity, according to which adherents of any trends in Islam are true Muslims. In actual fact, his lectures were attended by representatives of various Islamist trends. In 2012 he took up the job of vice president at the Cultural Islamic Center "Family" situated in a district some twenty kilometers from Kazan. Finally, the regional authorities of Tatarstan understood the real aims of his missionary activity among Tatar young people, and he had been told to leave Tatarstan with his family for Lebanon in January 20138. But among the results of his propaganda activity for about twenty years was the emergence of radical groups of
Muslims ready to commit terrorist acts, which took place in Tatarstan from 1999 to 2012.
The departure of Kamal al-Zant did not mean that all Arab preachers left Tatarstan. Mohamed Hamed continues his activity. Just like al-Zant he works as a doctor at the Muslim clinical diagnostic center "Yasin" in Kazan, functioning since 2009. Although he is not so popular as al-Zant, yet he has his place among the Arab missionaries operating in Tatarstan.
Summing up, it can be stated that Arab preachers in Tatarstan, the peak of whose activity was at the end of the 20th - beginning of the 21st century, were agents propagandizing the currents of foreign Islam of radical trend, which were non-traditional for the Tatar people. Having come to Tatarstan under the guise of teachers or doctors and often working with the support of Arab charity foundations, missionaries from the Middle East have played a negative role in spreading Islamic fundamentalism among Tatar young people of the Volga area. Today, when terrorist acts are not a rare event in Tatarstan it is clear what harm the Arab missionaries have done to Muslims of the Volga area by their sermons of "pure Islam." It is to be hoped that such preachers will never function on Russian territory.
Notes
F. Salman. Wahhabism ne prosto zlo, eto smertonosnoye zlo [Wahhabism Is not an Evil, It Is a Deadly Evil] // Rossiiskaya gazeta, 25.09. 1999. URL.: http:// www.rg.ru/anons/arc_1999/0925/2222/htmhttp://www.rg.ru/anons/arc_1999/0925/2 222/htm
V. Yakupov. Tsentr "Iman": 20 let sluzheniya umme [The "Iman" Center: 20 Years of Serving the Umma]. Kazan,. "Iman," 2010, p. 125.
A. Shokhin. Vliyaniye vneshnikh faktorov na rasprostraneniye v Rossii islamskogo fundamentalisma [Influence of Outside Factors on Spreading Islamic Fundamentalism in Russia] // Islam in Russia and CIS Countries: Collection of conference materials. St.Petersburg, 2008, pp. 487-495.
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V. Surikov. Rossiiskiye nayomniki: vymysel i pracda. Izderzhki vozrozhdeniya islama v Respublike Tatarstan [Russian Mercenaries: Invention and Truth. Expenses of Revival of Islam in Republic of Tatarstan]. Nezavisimaya gazeta. 2000, June 27.
A. Magomeddadayev. "Blagotvoritelnost"? ["Charity?"]. Dagestanskaya pravda. 2004, July 19. URL.: http://www.portal-credo.ru/site/?act=monitorid=4513http:// www.portal-credo.ru/site/?act=monitorid=4513 Krovavy terror [Bloody Terror]. Moscow, 2000, p. 261.
K. Polyakov. Arabskiye strany i islam v Rossii (1990 gody) [Arab Countries and Islam in Russia (1990s)]. Moscow, 2001, pp. 52-61.
R. Suleimanov. Islamsky terrorism v postsovetskom Tatarstane: spetsifika, potentsial ugrozy, mery protivodeistviya // Kontseptsiya protivodeistviya terrorismu v Rossiiskoi Federatsii. Kompleksny podkhod k formirovaniyu i funktsionirovaniyu sistemy protivodeistviya rasprostraneniyu ideologii terrorisma [Islamic Terrorism in Post-Soviet Tatarstan: Specificity, Potential Threats, Counter-measures // Concept of Opposition to Terrorism in the Russian Federation. Comprehensive Approach to Formation and Functioning of System Opposing the Spreading of Ideology of Terrorism]. Materials of the 3rd All-Russia conference. Vol. 2.Moscow, 2012, p. 121.
One of the ideologists of "Muslim Brothers" has left Tatarstan. Interfax-Religion 2013, January 29. URL.: http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=49811 www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=49811
"Uralskoe Vostokovedenie," Ekaterenburg, 2013, issue 5, pp. 193-200.
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Zh. Syzdykova, Political analyst CENTRAL ASIA AFTER 2014: CHALLENGES AND THREATS
According to American plans, the forces of the United States and its allies should withdraw from the territory of the Islamic Republic of
Afghanistan in 2014. Evidently, they will leave the Afghan leadership with a host of unresolved problems which will definitely influence, to various degree, both the foreign and domestic policy of Central Asian countries, touching also on the interests of Russia, the People's 34
