I had just landed in Istanbul on my way home for the Easter break. Message alerts ticked in on my Russian phone. Shooting and fire in a concert hall in Moscow. Many killed. It did not take long before it was said that the perpetrators were from Tajikistan. IS claimed responsibility. They even posted a go pro video of the shooting inside the Krokus arena. Rescue workers at work in the remains of the Krokus concert venue in Moscow. The photo is from March 23, the day after terrorists attacked with automatic weapons and incendiary bombs. Photo: Russia’s Investigative Committee / AFP There was no doubt that this would have consequences. It was going to be harder to be a Muslim, whether you were a Russian citizen or a guest worker from Central Asia. And there was more to come. Because in the autonomous republic of Dagestan three months later, 22 people were killed when extremist Islamists attacked a synagogue and two Orthodox churches. Several wrote on the messaging service Telegram that a niqab had been found with one of the five terrorists. Headgear for trouble The Muslim headgear covers everything except the eyes. Islamic leaders in Dagestan and the Muslim-dominated republic of Karachayevo-Cherkessia have banned the niqab. It started with the mufti of Dagestan announcing a fatwa, a religious ruling, temporarily banning the wearing of the niqab in the region. Until the danger is over, as stated in the judgment. He justified it with the security situation. Here, the woman has made up her eyes. But with eyes without make-up, it can be difficult to see whether it is a man or a woman hiding behind the niqab. The woman in the picture is from Oslo and has nothing to do with Russia. Photo: Lise Åserud / NTB The prohibition line is controversial among Russian Muslims. In return, it has the support of many non-Muslim Russians. May be banned throughout the country The Russian State Duma is now discussing two proposals that involve a complete or partial ban on garments that cover the face. The legislative proposals are out for some kind of hearing and are scheduled to be finalized in the autumn. The Communist Party’s proposal goes the farthest. They want fines for appearing in a public place with their face so covered that it is not possible to identify the person. The head of the central state investigation commission supports a ban. And already in May, the head of the President’s Council for Human Rights proposed banning the headscarf throughout Russia. It was even before the terrorist attack in Dagestan. But it was a couple of months after the terrorist attack on the Krokus Arena in Moscow. Last count said 145 killed there. True, the perpetrators were from Tajikistan, and no one hid behind a niqab. But they must be radical Islamists. A member of the Russian National Guard outside the burning concert venue on March 22. Photo: Dmitrij Serebrjakov / AP Fearing division and protests The niqab has no place in traditional, Islamic culture in Russia, the opponents argue. Nevertheless, President Vladimir Putin hesitates to take a stand. – We do not participate in that discussion, said the Kremlin’s press spokesman when he was asked earlier in July about the president’s position on the niqab. Knowing that Putin in practice has the power to prevent the State Duma from passing a law ban, there are now warnings from leading Muslims. – It would be an advantage to stop that whole discussion, says representative Mikhail Strazhinov from the sub-republic of Karachayevo-Cherkessia. The Grand Mufti Ilyar Alyautdinov of Moscow believes that a niqab ban may be in conflict with the constitution’s promise of religious freedom. And the head of the Islamic administration in the powerful Russian republic of Tatarstan believes “bans are an attack on Muslims”. While the Islamic leadership in troubled Dagestan believes that a temporary ban is absolutely necessary. President Putin in conversation with Mufti Ismail Berdiyev on Red Square in Moscow. Berdiyev is chairman of the Center for the Coordination of Muslims in the North Caucasus. He is controversial because he defends female circumcision. Photo from 17/8/2016. Photo: Aleksej Druzhinin / Afp Islam older than Christianity in Russia And to explain why, I’ll take you on a lightning-fast historical retrospective: The city of Derbent in Dagestan became Muslim as early as the 7th century, long before some princes in the Kingdom of Kyiv accepted Christianity . And already in the year 922, the leader of the Volga-Bulgarian kingdom a little further east swore loyalty to Islam. It was Arab merchants who brought the religion with them. Hundreds of thousands of Muslims were subsequently killed in connection with the expansion of the Russian Empire from the 16th century onwards. But many of their leaders also cooperated with the Tsar’s emissaries, often in exchange for a degree of autonomy. President Vladimir Putin visits the Naryn-Kala fortress in Derbent, Dagestan, June 28, 2023. The fortress was built in the 6th century on orders from the Persians. It then became the center of the Arab caliphate in Dagestan and of the spread of Islam in the region. After several attempts, in 1813 Russian forces took control of Derbent and Dagestan. Photo: Gavrill Grigorov / Sputnik/AP That’s how it continued under the Bolsheviks, and that’s how it still is. It is enough to mention Chechnya’s leader Ramzan Kadyrov. At home he is a dictator, upstairs he is loyal. The war for secession from Russia is history. The Dagestan problem But in Chechnya’s neighboring republic of Dagestan, the leaders have not been able to suppress the radical Islamists in the same way. In the late 1990s, they formed a separate community, Islamic Jamaat, which wanted to secede from the rest of Dagestan – and Russia. They imposed sharia law and declared that Russia’s constitution did not apply. Women had to cover up, and girls were even taken out of school. Armed Islamists fought for a long time to form their own mini-state inside Dagestan. This photo is from the front line in southern Dagestan, August 14, 1999. Photo: Adlan Hasanov / REUTERS The uprising was inspired by Wahhabis from Saudi Arabia and Tajikistan and separatists in Chechnya. Wahhabism is a puritanical reform movement in Islam. The rebellion was brutally put down, but it still smolders in an area between the regional capital Makhachkala and the fortress city of Derbent. At least one of the men behind the terrorist attack in June is said to be the son of a local leader from there. In autumn 2022, there were violent clashes between police and people demonstrating against the mobilization of soldiers to Ukraine. In October last year, protesters stormed the airport in protest against a plane carrying Israelis making a stopover on its way to Moscow. That does not mean that all those who protest are radical Islamists. But the dissatisfaction also fuels Islamists who are critical of the Russian central government. Russian special forces fought for several years against armed Islamists in Dagestan. Here from an action in the provincial capital Makhachkala, 15.1.2005. Photo: Sergej Rasulov / AP Useful for Putin Nevertheless, Putin is now careful not to say anything that could provoke the country’s Muslims, or groups of Muslims. He needs them as soldiers and as labor. – We are happy about the growth in the Islamic population, said the president at the beginning of June. They give birth to more children than other Russian citizens. The number of Muslims is uncertain, but during the 2002 census, 14.5 million Muslims were registered. In 2018, Russia’s Grand Mufti Sheikh Rawil Gaynetdin claimed that Russia had 25 million Muslims, including guest workers from Central Asia. Russian Muslims mark Id al-Adha in front of the Central Mosque in Moscow on June 16. The restored mosque was opened in 2015. Photo: Aleksander Zemlantsjenko / AP Guest workers exposed Some of the guest workers have dual citizenship. But it has become risky. 10,000 guest workers with Russian passports have been sent to the war, the Russian authorities stated at the end of June. The terrorist attacks have made their lives noticeably more difficult. The last time I traveled into Russia, an employee at the airport told me that 600 Tajiks had been queuing to be questioned by the FSB security police the day before. Also in “my” queue to be interrogated, most people were from Central Asia. A Tajik taxi driver – we correspondents love taxi drivers – said that his compatriots are often detained for over a day in connection with entering Russia. He says he knows people with a Turkish stamp in their passport who have been sent home. Russian authorities suspect that the Tajiks who attacked Krokus had received weapons training in Turkey. According to Radio Free Europe, many Tajiks have been banned from entering Russia for the next five to ten years. For many guest workers, it is a financial disaster. It is also a disaster for all the companies that are now losing workers to the war industry and therefore need the guest workers. Russia is even using guest workers from Central Asia to rebuild what they have destroyed in Ukraine. Mariupol was occupied by Russian forces at the start of the full-scale invasion in spring 2022. The picture is from October 2023. Photo: Jurij Linkevich / news But what does the president answer? Yes, you have to increase productivity, the alternative is to import more workers. He said that on 4 April, barely two weeks after the terrorist attack against Krokus. It wasn’t even necessary to say that he doesn’t want any more guest workers. The Russians understood that. Published 21.07.2024, at 16.25
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Putin refuses to discuss the niqab – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
