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What happened in Dagestan
More than 90 percent of Dagestan's 2 million plus people are Muslims. Yet while Islam has been an important social force in Dagestan for centuries, its practice is traditionally tolerant. Dagestanis are proud of their multicultural heritage, including Christian and Jewish minorities, and sexual equality is generally comparable to that in Western societies. Yet as Wahhabism began to take hold in Dagestan, Wahhabis demanded that fellow villagers uphold their puritanical strictures. From 1996 to 1997, as Wahhabism spread through Dagestan, violent clashes between Wahhabis and traditional Muslims began near the village of Karamakhi. By the end of 1998, Dagestani authorities had lost control of this area in the heart of the republic. Throughout the next 18 months, as Dagestani and Russian officials sought to negotiate with Islamic separatists in the Karamakhi vicinity, violence between Wahhabis and traditional Muslims erupted elsewhere in Dagestan. Meanwhile Akhtayev became a religious authority in Chechnya. In April 1999, he helped to organize the Caucasian Conference in Chechnya, where Chechen warlords, such as Shamil Basayev, called for the "liberation" of Dagestan. In August and September 1999, Basayev and Khattab led militant extremists in invasions of Dagestan. Many Dagestanis were slaughtered, villages were destroyed and 32,000 people were displaced. The Dagestanis spontaneously organized citizen militias and appealed to Moscow for military assistance. The invaders were driven out of the republic, Karamakhi was leveled and Wahhabi leaders were killed, imprisoned or forced into hiding. Unless we destroy the Wahhabi sect now, we'll be seeing more and more of this occurring throughout the world -- starting in Central Asia. Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2001-10-31 |
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