In 1999, RFE/RL correspondent Oleg Kusov interviewed young
people in
Gudermes, the second-largest town in Chechnya. They told him
they would
follow the Wahhabi principles because the Wahhabis gave them
$100 a month --
a large amount of money the traditional Sufi orders are
unlikely to be able
to pay.
----- Original Message -----
From:
"Andrew Jameson" <
[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To:
<
[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent:
Saturday, January 05, 2002 5:20 PM
Subject: Islam in North Caucasus
Life
> Johnson's Russia List
>
#6006
> 5 January 2002
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> A CDI
Project
>
www.cdi.org>
> #14
>
Russia: Islam Plays Fundamental Role In North Caucasus Life (Part
2)
> By Francesca Mereu
>
> The Russian republic of
Chechnya is located at the northeastern end of the
> Caucasus
mountains, which extend some 1,100 kilometers from the Black
Sea
to
> the Caspian Sea and largely separate Christian Europe
from the Middle
East.
> The Muslim nations of Turkey, Iran, and
Iraq are only a few hundred
> kilometers from Grozny, the Chechen
capital. Though Chechens were
converted
> to Islam quite late,
their belief was strong, and the religion became part
of
> the
Chechen national identity. Today, Islam continues to play
a
fundamental
> role in the lives of the Chechen people. In the
second of two stories on
the
> cultural and religious heritage of
Chechnya, RFE/RL correspondent
Francesca
> Mereu reports on the
traditional Chechen religion and how it has changed
over
> the
years.
>
> Moscow, 4 January 2002 (RFE/RL) -- Islam was
introduced into Chechnya over
a
> period of centuries, gaining a
number of converts by the 15th and 16th
> centuries but not taking
firm root until well into the 18th and mid-19th
>
centuries.
>
> The Chechens were converted to the Sunni branch
of Islam, with particular
> emphasis on its mystic Sufi form. Sufism
has come to mean those who are
> interested in finding a way or
practice toward inner awakening and
> enlightenment.
>
>
Sergio Salvi is a history professor at the University of Florence in
Italy
> and author of many books about Chechen history and religion.
He explains
the
> peculiarity of the Sufi interpretation of
Islam:
>
> "As far as Sufism is concerned, it is [a movement]
of organized
brotherhoods,
> who are grouped around a [spiritual
leader or] sheik. [Sufi followers]
> understand Islam in a mystic
way. Sufi doesn't differ from Islam in the
> theological point of
view, to use a Western term. The [Sufi
interpretation]
> is a
different way to look at Islam. Ardor is the medium to get in
touch
with
> God. [Sufi followers] use a variety of techniques
[to move toward God],
like
> singing, circular dances,
etc."
>
> Mikhail Roshin is a professor with the Oriental
Institute of the Russian
> Academy of Sciences. He says the goal of
the Sufi interpretation of Islam
is
> to establish direct contact
with God:
>
> "The fundamental nature of Sufi is that the
person who [has chosen] this
path
> can reach an individual
contact with God. Sufi followers have a teacher
who
> acts as an
intermediary between God and the person. [The teacher]
gives
the
> precepts according to which people should behave.
Usually Sufi followers
> respect these rules."
>
> More
than 800 mosques and numerous Islamic schools were located
in
Chechnya
> at the turn of the 20th century. But from 1928 to
1941, Soviet dictator
Josef
> Stalin tried to eliminate the
country's Islamic traditions. Most mosques
were
> closed and
Muslim clerics and believers in the Chechen and
Ingush
republics
> were arrested, deported, or executed -- in
all, some 14,000 people. Sufi
> spiritual leaders and believers were
labeled "counterrevolutionaries."
>
> A small number of
Chechens are believed to have colluded with the German
army
>
when it occupied the North Caucasus in 1942-43. In 1944, Stalin
ordered
the
> deportation of the entire Chechen and Ingush
population to Kazakhstan as
> punishment. Stalin is also believed to
have been concerned about an armed
> conflict with Turkey and
thought it too risky to have Muslim communities
in
> the North
Caucasus.
>
> According to Roshin, far from destroying the
Sufi brotherhoods, the mass
> deportation actually had the opposite
effect:
>
> "It may seem strange, but the deportation played a
conservatory role for
the
> Islamic traditions, since [Soviet]
authorities thought that [the Chechens]
> were in exile and did not
care about them anymore. [Chechens] preserved
their
> spiritual
life, their inner Islamic world."
>
> Russian novelist and
poet Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, describing Stalin's mass
> deportations
in his masterwork, "The Gulag Archipelago," wrote that
"only
one
> nation refused to accept the psychology of
submission" -- Chechnya.
>
> In the late 1950s, after Stalin's
death and Nikita Khrushchev's
> de-Stalinization campaign, the
Chechens were permitted to return home. But
> the persecution of
Sufi brotherhoods did not end.
>
> In Chechnya and Ingushetia,
the control of the organs of Soviet power
> remained in Russian
hands, with no concessions to local authorities, as in
> other
Soviet Muslim republics. Only in 1979 did Soviet authorities
allow
the
> opening of a few mosques, to stop the growth of
clandestine Sufi
> brotherhoods. Indeed, the orders themselves
organized their own
clandestine
> Arabic classes and schools
where the Koran was taught. In Chechnya and
> Ingushetia, there were
five legal and 292 clandestine mosques.
>
> When Mikhail
Gorbachev's program of economic, political, and social
>
restructuring, or perestroika, began in 1986, it also brought about
wage
> cuts, price hikes, food shortages. and unemployment. The
North Caucasus
> republics were not spared. On the one hand, massive
unemployment caused
the
> rise of criminal structures,
destabilizing Chechen society. On the other
> hand, people enjoyed
more religious freedom.
>
> According to Professor Salvi, Sufi
brotherhoods were unable to function in
> the new conditions. The
sheiks were able to exercise their moral authority
> only in
conditions of relative social peace. But from the start of
>
perestroika, that peace was under threat. This situation encouraged
the
> spreading of a fundamentalist movement called
Wahhabism.
>
> Said Yakhyev is a Sufi spiritual leader who
teaches Islam at Moscow State
> University. Yakhyev lived in
Chechnya during perestroika. He explains how
and
> why this
radical Islamic religious movement took easy root in
Chechnya:
>
> "Wahhabism in Chechnya began to spread in the
1980s in the period of
> glasnost, when thing were allowed. And
people who got freedom [for the
first
> time] began to think
about a new kind of religion, about new ideas. It was
> very
fashionable at the time. Wahhabism was able to spread in Chechnya
>
because at the time nobody was able to face it and to negate its
false
> dogmas. There was no real religious opposition to it, and
now it is the
same."
>
> Wahhabis call themselves the
followers of pure Islam and oppose all
practices
> not sanctioned
by the Koran. They look at Sufi Islam as a deviation from
the
>
original Islamic rules.
>
> Roshin explains that this view of
Islam rejects "magical rituals,"
> pilgrimages to saint shrines, or
recitations of the Koran in cemeteries --
> all activities that had
become commonplace among the Chechen Sufi orders:
>
>
"[Wahhabis] deny the role of the teacher, which for the Sufi is
very
> important. They also deny the cult of the saints and
pilgrimages to the
saint
> shrines that are widespread among the
followers of Sufi Islam. Among the
> Northern Caucasus' Islam
followers, and Chechens in particular, the ritual
of
>
condolences is widespread. When someone dies, there is a
[particular]
> condolence ritual followed by the relatives [of the
deceased] and by the
> entire village. But the Wahhabis think it is
enough to bury a deceased
> person. They [think] it is useless to
follow the [condolence] ritual. The
> inner link with God, typical
for the Sufi followers, is denied by the
>
Wahhabis."
>
> The Wahhabis' influence became stronger in
Chechnya after the Russian
> military campaigns in the republic.
Many years of war impoverished and
> destabilized Chechen society,
and the Wahhabis used this situation to
their
>
advantage.
>
> Sergei Arutyunov is a member of the Russian
Academy of Sciences and the
head
> of the Caucasus department of
Moscow's Ethnology Institute. He cites the
> example of how Chechens
had to change their burial traditions due to lack
of
>
money.
>
> According to Chechen custom, when someone dies, the
family has to feed
> everyone who attends the funeral. A cow or a
few sheep are slaughtered to
> feed up to 200 guests. This tradition
has always been difficult to
fulfill,
> since most families in
the region have little money.
>
> Today, many families have
lost everything in the wars. Few can afford to
> continue the burial
tradition. Some families are forced to borrow money
for
> funeral
banquets. According to Arutyunov, it is now common for
young
members
> of a family to tell people who arrive for a
funeral to leave. And these
> impressionable young people, after
listening to Wahhabi leaders, begin to
> believe that the burial
tradition is wrong and in opposition to real
Muslim
> principles.
According to the Wahhabis, Islamic law forbids rejoicing or
> eating
at the funeral of a fellow Muslim.
>
> Arutyunov says many
young people are beginning to think the Wahhabis teach
> principles
that have more relevance to current life in Chechnya.
>
> "It
is strongly contrary to the [Chechen] customary laws and habits,
but
many
> people will listen and say, 'This guy [a Wahhabi
leader] is right.' He has
> reasons to talk so. Indeed, the custom
is bad, because fulfilling the
custom
> means to ruin his
family."
>
> In 1999, RFE/RL correspondent Oleg Kusov
interviewed young people in
> Gudermes, the second-largest town in
Chechnya. They told him they would
> follow the Wahhabi principles
because the Wahhabis gave them $100 a
month --
> a large amount
of money the traditional Sufi orders are unlikely to be
able
> to
pay.
>
> According to Professor Roshin, the differences
between the Wahhabi
followers
> and the Sufi can best be
understood in their differing concepts of the
jihad.
>
>
"Wahhabis follow the old concept of jihad, meaning the holy war to
convert
> the infidels. The Sufis have another interpretation of
jihad. They see it
not
> as a war against the infidels, but as a
war that a Muslim has to fight
> against his own defects to try to
reach perfection."
>
> The Russian military refers to Chechen
field commanders as Wahhabis. But
Anna
> Politkovskaya, a
journalist with "Novaya Gazeta" who has covered the
>
Russian-Chechen conflict, contends that this is a mistake.
>
>
According to Politkovskaya, Chechen field commanders loyal to
Chechen
leader
> Aslan Maskhadov defend Chechen national
traditions and oppose
fundamentalist
> groups like the Wahhabis,
since they believe they will destabilize Chechen
> national unity.
Another group, according to Politkovskaya, consists of
those
>
who surround field commanders like Shamil Basaev and Khattab. This
group
> seeks an Arab-style Islamization of
Chechnya.
>
> The Sufi brotherhoods try to keep their distance
from the conflict. With
no
> end to the war in sight, many
believers and spiritual leaders have left
> Chechnya for neighboring
Ingushetia or Russia.
>
> Chechnya's traditional Islam has
been represented by two Sufi "tarikats,"
or
> orders: the Qadir
and the Naqshbandi. The Qadir order first appeared in
the
>
Caucasus in the middle of the 19th century and was headed by a
Daghestani
> shepherd named Kunta Khaji. Khaji believed in a
mystical practice that,
> unlike the Naqshbandi, permitted the
central "zikr" ritual to include
> ecstatic dances, songs, and even
music -- all practices forbidden by the
> Naqshbandi, who prefer a
silent form of zikr closed to outsiders.
>
> Zikr, which means
"remembrance of God," is the central ritual practice of
> most
Caucasian Sufi orders. This mystical ceremony, designed to lead
>
participants into an ecstatic union with God, involves the
group
repetition
> of a special prayer.
>
> During
the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which ended in
mid-December,
many
> Chechens living in Moscow gathered to pray
and perform the zikr in the
> capital's central mosque. Qadir
Chechens performed the zikr. They danced
in a
> circle, holding
each other's shoulders and singing in Arabic, "Allah is
our
>
only God."
>
> They clap their hands ecstatically. In the
middle of the circle the imam,
or
> prayer leader, leads
followers to clap in the proper rhythm. Yakhyev
> explained that, in
this way, believers reach direct contact with God.
>
> Sufi
spiritual leader Yakhyev explains what the zikr means for
different
> Chechen Muslim orders: "For the Naqshbandi, the zikr is
an inner ritual,
what
> they call the zikr of the heart. For us
Kunta Khaji followers [or Qadir],
it
> is the zikr of the
language. With our voice, we try to influence people
that
> are
taking part in the zikr and also people that are looking at us
from
the
> outside."
>
> According to Yakhyev,
non-believers watching and listening to the zikr
> sometimes fall
into a trance.
>
> *******
