Radical Islam sweeping into North Caucasus
Published 30 April, 2008, 05:04
There's concern in the southern Russian Republic of Dagestan that a more fundamental form of Islam is sweeping through its mosques. Unemployment, poor living standards and perceived corruption are fuelling the desire for change among the young.
Dagestan is the oldest Muslim republic in Russia and many of its young are turning away from more traditional Islamic teaching.
“Our religion is the most important thing for us, because Allah created us and ordered how to live. If we break the rules, then Allah will punish us,” says Imam Muhammad-Murad Radzhabov.
Dagestan is the only place in the North Caucasus where the Arabs came to spread Islam. It was the locals who spread the ideology further, to Chechnya and other regions, disguised as shepherds.
The Imam says the problems could be avoided if all the mosques in Dagestan were controlled by the main spiritual body of the republic.
Today only sixty per cent of them are accountable to the religious officials.
“The people of Dagestan are uniting at the moment around Islam. As for the youth, for them religion is a means self-identification. They want to stand out among other Russians,” said Marko Shakhbanov, a Dagestani journalist.
At the moment there are two and a half thousand mosques for the republic's two and a half million people.
Experts say the number will increase as the young turn to religion in the face of unemployment, poor living standards and perceived corruption.
It's only Moscow's control that's keeping a lid on the radicals in the region.
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