Radical Islam Sweeping into North Caucasus
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.