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Yana Amelina,
Political scientist, Russian Institute of Strategic Investigations (RISI) THREAT OF ISLAMISM
Radical Islamism is one of the most serious threats to public order and the state system of the Russian Federation. It is the main driving force behind the illegal armed formations (IAF), fighting in the North Caucasus for the last seven years. IAF motivated by ideas of political Islam became active in the Volga region (Tatarstan and Bashkortostan) in 2010 for the first time since the late 1990s. The ultimate goal of radical Islamists is to build an Islamic caliphate - a state based on Islamic ideology in the most rigid form - in the North Caucasus (ideally - on the entire territory of Russia).
The major trends characterizing Islamic radicalism in Russia as a whole, and in the North Caucasus in particular, are as follows:
- undermining the positions of traditional Islam by the physical extermination of the iconic figures of the Muslim community, which leads to disorientation of the ummah;
- gradual formation of a "united Islamic front" joining Islamists of the North Caucasus and the Volga region;
- formation of an eclectic Islamist ideology, as well as corresponding organizational structures;
- increased orientation to a foreign Islamic community (primarily
Arab);
- active work of the federal Islamist lobby, popularizing and promoting Islamist ideas in the national mass media and state institutions.
These trends have been finally formed over the past two years. There is every reason to believe that these processes will determine the future evolution of the Russian radical Islamic community in the coming years. This phenomenon will inevitably have an impact on neighboring countries and regions (for example, on Azerbaijan).
Formation of a "Single Islamic Front"
Islamists, engaged in the fight against the Russian state in the North Caucasus, have started to spread jihad in the Volga region and in particular in the Republic of Tatarstan. This trend has taken shape in the last three or four years, coinciding with the qualitative changes observed in the Tatar Muslim community.
The decrees for the opening of the Volga and Ural fronts were signed by "Emir of Caucasian Mujahideen" Doka Umarov on July 9, 2006.
In November 2010, a special website "Vilayat Idel - Ural" appeared, which has been registered in the United States. Continuing to be a virtual project, it has gradually won many supporters.
The Tatar national movement includes many representatives of the younger generation and joined the radical Islamic movement in recent years, which may lead to complete fusion of nationalists and fundamentalists, with ideological dominance of the latter. The leadership of the Tatarstan Muslim community has been aware of the danger of such processes for the Tatar nation and Muslims of Tatarstan. They have actively opposed this and advocated the course to the "Tatar
mosque" with national characteristics of "Tatar Islam," despite fierce opposition on the part of radical Islamists.
Over the past two years the tone of statements at Islamist forums (primarily Caucasian) and materials published by them has changed significantly with an emphasis on promoting jihad in the Volga region and frequent calls for its beginning.
The followers of Caucasian jihad try to aggravate the situation by staging provocations against the legitimate authorities in Tatarstan, using methods of information warfare and distributing material calling for active resistance in the information space. In 2012, a group of supporters of the "jihad until victory" appeared in Tatarstan, following the example of the North Caucasus. The situation in Tatarstan is similar to that in North Ossetia. No doubt, the attempts to provoke the situation in these republics simultaneously are not accidental, and are part of an overall plan to destabilize the country and connect the Islamic arc across the North Caucasus to the Volga region.
Formation of Eclectic Islamist Ideology
Distinction between the followers of different Islamic movements is becoming increasingly blurred. Eclectic ideology includes elements of both radical ideologies that are based on the violent confrontation with government agencies, as well as relatively "peaceful" Islamic movements that have previously been in a confrontation with one another. The activists of "Hizb ut-Tahrir" - the Islamic party banned in Russia - were in the forefront of the campaign against the so-called violations of the rights of Muslims in Tatarstan, unleashed by radicals. The North Caucasus Islamists are oriented to the global Islamic community, particularly the Arab. 3.3% of Ingush men and 2.3% of Ingush women have named Arabs as the most desirable
persons for marriage. This is an illustration of fundamentalist sentiments of Ingush young people.
The tendency of certain Arabization of culture is evident throughout the North Caucasus now. A manifestation of this trend is the Arab headscarf becoming more and more popular among Muslim women and girls in the North Caucasus and the Volga republics.
Impact of the "Arab Spring" and the Vigorous
Activity of the Federal Islamic Lobby
The "Arab Spring" has definitely influenced the Russian Muslim community. According to activists of the federal Islamist lobby, Russia needs to change its attitude to the events in the Arab world, focusing on "improving relations" with the moderate Islamist organization "Muslim Brotherhood", whose representatives have come to power in Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco.
According to these lobbyists, the Russian Islamic community ostensibly focuses on the general Islamic trend and Russia will actually have a "fifth column" inside the country, unless it changes its policy in the Middle East. At the same time Moscow has been urged to abandon support for Shi'ite Iran, which does not fit into the plans for the establishment of the Arab Sunni caliphate.
The "Muslim Brotherhood" has been recognized as a terrorist organization, and its activities were banned on the territory of the Russian Federation by the Supreme Court decision of February 14, 2003. Its aim is "the elimination of non-Islamic governments and establishment of Islamic rule all over the world by recreating the "Great Islamic caliphate," first in regions with predominantly Muslim population, including Russia and the CIS. The attitude of the "Muslim Brotherhood" to Russia cannot be called friendly or at least neutral.
On October 12, 2012, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the ideologist of the "Muslim Brotherhood" and of "moderate Islam," made a statement on Qatar TV that Moscow was the number one enemy of Islam and Muslims, because it was against the Syrian people.
The International Theological Conference on "Islamic Doctrine against Radicalism" was held in Russia on May 25-27, 2012. It adopted the Moscow Theological Declaration of Muslim scholars on jihad and the use of the Sharia and caliphate, combining the contents of a few private theological findings (fatwas).
The conference was organized by the International Center "Al Vasatyyya" (Kuwait), its subsidiary - Scientific and Educational Center "Al-Vasatyyya Moderation" (Russia), the International Union of Islamic Scholars with the financial support of the Foundation for Support of Islamic science, culture and education, and the Akhmad Kadyrov Foundation. Several hundred Islamic scholars of world stature, and Islamists and experts from 23 countries of the Muslim world participated in the conference.
The declaration of the conference stated that the murders and explosions committed by fanatics in the North Caucasus and other regions under the banner of jihad and fight against apostates (by whom they mean all loyal to non-Muslims) are not jihad and have no relation to it.
All of these trends point to the seriousness of the intentions of the fundamentalists. It is clear that they will pay close attention to the North Caucasus and the Volga region in order to disseminate radical Islamist ideas there. The aggravation of the struggle of traditional Islam with the Islamists, supported by financial injections from the Arab East, is inevitable.
The development of the Russian ummah should include strengthening the position of traditional Islam and orientating Russian
Muslims to domestic rather than foreign Islamic authorities. In addition, it is necessary to isolate the federal Islamist lobby and prevent promotion of absurd ideas about establishing relations with the notorious Islamist fundamentalists .
"Moskva," Moscow, 2014, No 1, pp. 174-178.
I. Dobayev,
D. Sc. (Philosophy)
A. Dobayev,
Ph. D. (Econ.)
D. Umarov,
Southern Federal University
SPECIFIC FEATURES OF FINANCING TERRORIST
ORGANIZATIONS IN THE NORTH CAUCASUS
Terrorism is one of the most crucial problems of the modern epoch. It has always existed, but during the past two decades it has acquired qualitatively new features, which turn it into a global threat to all mankind. In contrast to traditional terrorism, which did not threaten society and did not touch its vital activities, modern terrorism is highly technological and can cause a systemic crisis in any state with a developed information infrastructure. Apart from this basic feature, modern terrorism also has certain specific traits. They touch on ideological and organizational aspects of the activities of terrorist groupings. Ideologically, modern terrorism includes unprecedentedly broad Islamist component in all its structures. Organizationally, it is no longer confined to a definite territory, is not centralized, and has a large number of independent groups scattered all over the world.
It is not surprising that "new terrorism" has recently become an object of a thorough investigation. Experts are interested in the changes
