Western Resistance: Dagestan: Jihad Got the Blues

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August 22, 2007

Dagestan: Jihad Got the Blues

The Republic of Dagestan, Russia's southernmost region and one plagued by the violence of Islamic jihad since 1999, has seen a slight improvement in its fortunes since since my last visit in 2005. As Moscow commits more firepower and resources the Islamic terrorists have been forced to retreat into their moutain strongholds. Assassinations and bombings of police officers continue, but on a lesser scale.

State-controlled Islam, however, is proliferating, with many more mosques appearing over the past two years with state support and control. While this version of Islam is under the watch of the Russian secret police, the FSB, anyone who takes the Koran seriously automatically comes in contact with its intolerance and call to violence against non-believers. In that sense, the government is only sowing the seeds for a future conflict.

Dagestan, home to about 30 different nationalities (none of which are `Dagestani' per se), is a critical border between Europe and Asia. Azerbaijan lies to the south, while Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Iran are across the Caspian Sea.

The main nationalities of Dagestan's 2.6 million inhabitants are Avars, Dargins, Lezgins, Laks, and Tabarsarans.

The good news, however, is that many locals in the cities have little devotion or interest in Islam, as I witnessed during a visit earlier this month to the republic.

On my flight from Moscow to Makhachkala, Dagestan's capital city, I sat next to a man who was Tabarsaran. I pumped him full of questions about life in the republic, and I was most taken by the way he spoke of Muslims.

``Those Muslims; they're crazy; making so much trouble!''

Now this is coming from a man who is `Muslim'; at least, that is what Russia's Council of Muftis considers him to be since he is from a `traditional' Muslim territory. This man was the owner of a construction company. He clearly had a modern view on life, and the insane and violent teachings of the 7th century Arabian warlord, Mohammed, are of no interest or use.

After a 2 hour flight from Moscow, my plane touched down in Makhachkala, and which coincided with the call to prayer bellowing from a mosque located 100 meters from the airport's reception area. There were several hundred people at the reception area waiting to meet loved-ones. Even though the call to prayer went out no one paid any attention to it. None felt the need to pray to the bloodthirsty Islamic deity, Allah. Only one man turned around clearly perplexed at the bizarre and diabolical sound emanating from the mosque.

While Russian military action in the Second Chechen War dealt a severe blow to Dagestan Islamic military units and their Chechen allies, police officers with whom I spoke say some Dagestan mountain villages maintain Islamic law, and are extremely hostile to state authorities. As long as they remain pent up deep in the mountains, however, Dagestan authorities do not engage them. The problem is that sometimes they come down to the cities to bomb and murder.

The rest of my time in Dagestan was spent with Muslims of all ages, but most were from the educated classes. While many spoke of a belief in ``God'', almost none had any apparent interest in Islam, except for its occasional cultural significance. All the men enjoyed drinking.

True, certainly not everyone is like this. Driving around Makhachkala and Derbent I got the impression that there is a strong underclass, brooding and bitter, that might find the violent teachings of the Warlord Mohammed to be appealing.

Part of this is due to the corrupt elite. The region has enormous economic potential, with large reserves of oil and gas, as well as opportunity to develop tourism and agriculture. Most of the region's wealth, however, is in the hands of a small number of clans, and they have little desire to share or develop their region.

Dagestan's second largest city, Derbent, which is also the oldest city in Russia, dates back 5,000 years. I'm still looking into this question, but I found literature saying that Christianity flourished in Derbent and most of Dagestan and Azerbaijan when these areas were part of the Caucasian Albanian state in the 4th and 5th centuries. Gregory the Illuminator, the man who brought Christianity to nearby Armenia, is said to be the one who brought Christianity to Caucasian Albania.

The Persians, however, were constantly meddling in Albania's affairs. Infused with the brutal ideology of Mohammed, the Arabs came to Dagestan at the end of the 7th century, and soon displaced the Persians as the regional hegemon. While Islam began its brutal policy of conversion in the cities, Christianity proved resilient in the small towns and villages. But by the 15th century, Islam had almost wiped out all vestiges of Christianity. All that remained of Christianity were small isolated Armenian merchant communities, such as the one in Derbent.

Today, all that remains of Derbent's Christian heritage is a ruined church in the citadel, and a 19th century Armenian church in the downtown. It's a museum, however. The locals show their contempt for the site by throwing their rubbish along the walls around it. (see photo)

Today, Dagestan's population is 94% `Muslim' and 6% Christian, these being the descendants of Russians who came to the republic over the course of 200-year rule by Moscow.

Derbent is also well-known as once being a centre for the so-called Mountain Jews. Some locals told me that until 1980 as much as 20,000 Jews lived there. With that in mind I figured a synagogue must be around somewhere. My search proved futile, however. No one knew of one, and I imagine that whatever Jewish house of prayer had previously existed had been torn down or reconverted for Muslim worship.

While I had been warned that the streets of Derbent were full of women wearing black from head to toe, I saw none of that during two days there. Perhaps the intense heat, 36 Celsius, kept them inside.

As my week-long trip drew to a close, I felt a bit uneasy. Clearly I had only touched the surface of this complex region. While I had the chance to chat, drink, and socialise with some very nice and educated men, I also felt the suspicious and unwelcoming stares of gruff, scruffy, and threatening men on the streets as we walked by.

As I left Dagestan I thought of my trip last year to Ingushetia. There, while dining with Ingush officials, one of them took me aside and said, ``You see all these people. They smile, they're nice to you; they pledge support to Moscow. But deep down inside they want independence, and they want to establish an Islamic Caliphate. Make no mistake. The Caliphate is coming to the North Caucasus. Maybe not this year, but in our lifetime.''

This is precisely why Moscow's policy of ''state Islam'' won't work. Any form of Islam will eventually lead to violence and hatred. That is the very essence of the ideology created by a violent and brutal man. The only way to guarantee society's peace and stability is to close down all the mosques and reveal Islam for the evil it is.

A Nuremberg-like trial would be most effective toward such a goal.

The fortress in Derbent