Wahhabist Terror strikes Tatarstan

Today, unknown assailants have attacked two outspoken critics of Wahhabi/Salafist Islam in Kazan, capital of the Russian republic of Tatarstan. Valiulla Yakupov, Tatarstan’s Deputy Mufti, was shot and killed as he left his home, whilst elsewhere in the city the Chief Mufti himself - Ildus Fayzov – was seriously injured as a car bomb tore his vehicle apart. Although nobody has yet claimed responsibility for these attacks, it is a near certainty that they were perpetrated by Salafist militants, angered by the efforts of these two men to combat a growing trend towards Quranic literalism and the call for violent Jihad that has been gaining traction in the republic. It seems symbolic that the attacks took place upon the eve of Ramadan, as if emphasising that the attackers regarded them as false Muslims. 

Valiulla Yakupov

 Izvestia reports that “Spetsnaz are conducting an operation to detain the presumed killers” and reveals some interesting background information on the two victims. Fayzov only took up his position in April 2011, succeeding Gusman Iskhakov who, according to “the unofficial version” was held to be “leading an insufficiently rigorous policy in relation the republic’s radical Islamists”, whereas Fayzov “took a hard-line and principled position on this question.” Fayzov and Yakupov in this respect were cast from the same mould, and shortly before his death, Yakupov told the paper that he was “alarmed at the growing influence of followers of radical currents of Islam amongst the republic’s Muslims.” He believed that these influences were primarily of foreign origin, stating: “Dozens of people go abroad, who then return to the republic and act as influential agents: actually recruiting new people and sending them abroad.”

There thus seems to be a clear motive for the attacks, with the Islamists wishing to use violence to silence those who advocate a peaceful interpretation of Islam, with a view to further radicalising and polarising the situation within Tatarstan. However, although Yakupov and many others have made reference to a very real foreign role in generating this phenomenon, there is also the Caucasus to take into consideration, which has acted as an incubator for Salafist radicalism these past two decades. Self-styled ‘Emir’ Doku Umarov has been attempting to create what he terms a “Caucasian Emirate” and, according to Nezavisimaia gazeta, has also called for “mujahideen” to “resettle in the Volga region so as to call local Muslims to jihad.”  The Chechen Islamist also wishes for Tatarstan to secede from Russia and to become part of a “Greater Caucasian Emirate”. Such people are said to have settled in Tatarstan and are playing an active role in pushing Salafism, with the consequence that experts now believe that no less than 10 of Kazan’s 50 mosques now effectively lie in their hands.

As outlined on this blog last year, officials in Tatarstan have grown increasingly worried about the growth of violent Islamist militancy for quite some time, as reflected in a piece on the republic run by Nezavisimaia gazeta entitled ‘A whole Generation of Extremists’, for it is amongst the younger generation in particular that Salafism is exerting the greatest appeal. This revealed that a considerable number of individuals had visited Pakistan and Afghanistan where they participated in violent jihadist activity before returning home with a view of attacking domestic targets.

Although Tatarstan as of 2010 had a population of 3.8 million, of which only 53.2% were Tatars (traditionally Sunni Muslims), experts consider that there are no less than 3,000 Islamist radicals in the republic, of which approximately 10% are “ready to take up arms and wage jihad, and the remainder to sponsor and help them in any way”. This figure is roughly equivalent to the number of Islamist radicals reputedly being monitored in the UK. For a territory as small as Tatarstan, this figure is quite remarkable, and today’s killings are not the first that have been perpetrated by jihadists on its soil. In November 2010, three Islamist militants believed to have planted a bomb beneath the car belonging to the Director of Tatarstan’s branch of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) Centre for Countering Extremism, were tracked down and killed in Nurlat’skii District. In the five-year period leading up to 2011, more than 100 people in Tatarstan had been sentenced for their involvement in terrorist and extremist activity.

Whereas in the past the version of Islam encountered amongst the Tatars has been of a relatively mild variety, the example of the effective displacement of traditional Sufism and other forms of Islam by Salafism in the Caucasus, seems unfortunately to point the way forward for Tatarstan, where young Muslims have increasingly taken to mimicking the fashions of the militants from the Caucasus, so much so, that many young Tatar nationalists have erroneously appropriated this alien cultural form as a signifier of their identity. Although therefore Kazan may lie far away and be practically unknown to most of us, this particular problem, born ultimately of Saudi oil wealth, is one shared with many other countries. Today’s attacks provide a sad and salutary reminder, that the malign influence of Salafist ideology is not yet on the wane, but rather, very much on the offensive and making significant inroads. 

German Defence League and Pro-NRW Duisburg Demo

The German website Politically Incorrect reports that a demonstration was held in the German city of Duisburg yesterday by the Pro-North Rhine Westphalia Movement and the German Defence League. About 40 protesters turned out to demonstrate against the construction of the largest mosque in the city – which also turns out to be the largest mosque in Europe - in the Marxloh District. As is the case with anti-Islamisation demonstrations in Britain, this was met by a counterdemonstration comprised of a combination of Muslim residents and self-styled ‘anti-fascists’, which on this occasion happened to be about 100 strong. The police however did a good job and managed to contain the potentially violent Islamo-Marxists.

The placards waved by the joint antifa/Turkish Muslim counterdemonstration depicted Tony Fiedler – Head of the Pro-North Rhine Westphalia Youth Wing – with blood running from his nose, the consequence of a recent attack upon Fiedler perpetrated by ‘anti-fascists’ which left him with a broken nose. The slogan on the posters read “Marxloh hates Pro NRW”. That the counterdemonstrators truly are filled with hate, can be little doubted. Contrast the pictures of the demonstrators below and ask yourself which group of people would be more likely to indulge in acts of violence.

An article praising the mosque can be found on the sinisterly named website Cities of Migration, a site that promotes the cultural and demographic dissolution of cities in the Western World through mass immigration. It says of the mosque:

‘The plans for the mosque included a meeting center and venue for the local people. The community center has a separate entrance from the prayer areas, designed to make non-Muslims feel more comfortable coming in. The mosque also has extra large windows (as suggested by a Catholic priest on the consultative panel) as a detail intended to promote transparency. The entrance hall includes an open arena for dialogue between the Muslim community and followers of different faiths as well as an information centre, an internet cafe along with a conference and reading halls for both Muslims and non-Muslims.’

Of course, a mosque such as this will seek to attract non-Muslims as it is simply a technique to attempt to convert Germans to Islam. It would be naïve to think otherwise. Indeed, Deutsche Welle reports that over the past week police raids have been carried out on over 70 premises across Germany to tackle the threat posed by the recently banned Solingen-based Salafist group Millatu Ibrahim and ideological affiliates. Solingen itself is situated in North-Rhine Westphalia, and the decision to ban Millatu Ibrahim was taken upon the grounds of its opposition to ‘Germany’s constitutional order and endangering the public peace.’

Another Salafist group has been distributing free Qur’ans in many German cities, with Gulf News noting that this has been part of ‘their drive to convert non-Muslims, a campaign that has involved handing out 25 million copies of the Quran in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.’ The same article cites an estimate of approximately 2,500 Salafists in Germany who support ‘violence against state institutions’.

That North-Rhine Westphalia is a centre of German opposition to Islamisation should therefore not come as a surprise. The Islamic population is flexing its political and cultural muscle, with some doctrinaire Muslims being willing to resort to violence as a means of advancing their ends, as demonstrated by recent violent clashes between police and Salafists in Solingen in May. Yet, despite this real threat, the so-called ‘anti-fascists’ label those Germans who oppose Islamisation as ‘far-right’, ‘racist’, ‘fascist’ and ‘neo-Nazi’. Despite there generally being no grounds for such stigmatising labels, the anti-democrats of the Left are quite happy to employ them in their general quest to destroy nation-states. As such, the operation of the ‘anti-fascist’ movement in Germany bears striking parallels with that of UAF in Britain and MRAP in France.

Pro-NRW wishes to draw attention not only to Islamisation, but also to the anti-white racism and violence that takes place in Germany. The contrast between the conduct and attitude of the two groups of demonstrators yesterday, clearly illustrates the essentially peaceful nature of Pro-NRW, whereas the same cannot be said of their ‘anti-fascist’/Muslim opponents.

'Anti-Fascists' - Marxloh hates Pro NRW!!!

 

Pro-North Rhine Westphalia anti-Islamisation Demonstrators

A spirited German Woman stands up to Islamism

The main segment of the following video (hat tip to Up Pompeii) was taken on a mobile phone in Frankfurt on 22 April, and depicts a frustrated and angry German woman named Heidi berating her compatriots for their failure to stand up to Islamism in Germany and to protect the freedoms that Germans today enjoy. Her outburst was prompted by the holding of a Salafist rally in the city which drew some 1,500 Muslims to listen to the likes of the Jamaican Muslim Abu Ameena Philips and German Muslim convert Pierre Vogel call for the extermination of all homosexuals in Germany.

As can be seen from the following interview on the English Version of the Politically Incorrect website, her anger was fuelled by the fact that a protestant church in the city had actually allowed itself to be used as a base by Philips, Vogel and their supporters. Moreover, she had just been trying to explain the fundamental differences of the examples of Christ and Mohammed to some Muslim girls, drawing attention to their widely differing treatment of adultery: the forgiveness shown by Christ and the death sentence given by Mohammed. This was the trigger for a Muslim man standing next to Heidi to aggressively intervene and try and shut her up. What you see in the video below is how she reacted.

We all know that those who take a robust public stand against Islam place themselves in considerable peril not only from doctrinaire Muslims, but also (in the UK at any rate) from the police. Unfortunately, had Heidi said what she did in the UK, I think that she would probably have been arrested and would be facing a charge for ‘hate crime’. Witness the disgraceful 70-day prison sentence given to Cumbria man Andrew Ryan for burning a copy of the Qur’an, and contrast this with the £50 fine handed out to Emdadur Choudary for burning poppies and calling for the overthrow of the British state. The words “Britons never, never, never shall be slaves” now ring very hollow indeed. We have been reduced to second-class status in our own homeland.

In her speaking, Heidi broke the multiculturalist taboo that keeps all European peoples gagged. May her words resonate with the German people and help bring to an end the unfolding Islamic nightmare that threatens to snuff out freedom everywhere.

Tatarstan: ‘A whole generation is ready to conduct extremist activity’

Next year marks the 460th anniversary of the incorporation of the territory of Tatarstan into the Russian state. The fall of Kazan, the capital of the former Tatar Khanate, to the forces of Ivan the Terrible was memorably commemorated in the first part of Sergei Eisenstein’s allegory on Stalin’s paranoid court - Ivan the Terrible Part 1 - and marked the point when Russia finally put to rest its fears of domination from the East. Now however, it appears that a new fear is haunting Russia, as the country’s demographic crisis is leading to a decline in the absolute number of ethnic Russians, as well as their share in the state's population. On the other hand, its Asiatic Muslim population is growing in both absolute and relative terms, rather than shrinking.

Still from Sergei Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible, Part 1



This represents the continuation of a long-established trend, for differential Muslim and non-Muslim birth-rates were already a cause for concern within the Soviet Union as early as the mid 1970s. When the USSR collapsed in 1991, the loss of the Muslim Central Asian republics and Azerbaijan left Russia shorn of a significant proportion of the USSR’s Muslim population. However, owing to Russia’s gradual historical territorial expansion across the northern expanse of Eurasia, many other traditionally Muslim peoples were incorporated into the tsarist state and its successors: Tatars, Bashkirs, Chechens, Ingush, Dagestanis (a label encompassing over thirty small Muslim ethnic groups) and others. These peoples have generally speaking remained concentrated in their historical homelands, and whereas amongst many of these groupings adherence to Islam at the popular level may have been historically superficial and officially frowned upon during the Soviet period, the past two decades has seen a resurgence in religious – particularly Muslim - identities.

As in other countries, Saudi money has underpinned the rise of the Wahhabist variant of Islam amongst many young Muslims in Russia, and jihadist ideology has been grafted onto a pre-existing nationalist rootstock in a number of cases. A recent article in Nezavisimaia gazeta entitled ‘A whole Generation of Extremists’ gives a clue to how significant the problem of jihadist ideology has become in Tatarstan. As in the UK, the Russian security agencies have discovered that a significant number of Islamists in the republic have journeyed to Pakistan and Afghanistan to participate in violent Islamist activity before returning home to attack non-Muslim targets in their homeland. So acute is this problem adjudged to be, that it is said to rank alongside poverty in its potential to threaten social stability in the republic. The local republican government is thus engaged in devising a new programme to forestall and combat the growth of violent extremism in Tatarstan. Although the word is not mentioned, the threat is quite clearly Islamic.

Last November three armed Islamic militants were killed by members of the Russian security forces in Tatarstan’s Nurlat’skii District. The three were suspected of planting a bomb beneath the car of the Director of Tatarstan’s branch of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) Centre for Countering Extremism. Luckily for him, the bomb failed to detonate. As in the UK, the Russian Government and mainstream media are coy about describing the phenomenon that they are dealing with, referring euphemistically to ‘extremism’ without appending the Islamic tag. As the Nezavisimaia gazeta correspondent Sergei Tarasov notes, loose deployment of terms such as the “struggle with extremism” («борьба с экстремизмом») by Russia’s political and security establishment runs the risk of enabling the deployment of repressive measures including lethal force, to put to an end any political opposition that might feasibly be described as ‘extremist’. We can see a direct parallel with respect to this abuse of language in David Cameron’s recent speech in Munich, which sought to bracket Islamism with a deliberately stigmatised domestic British patriotism as exemplified by groups such as the EDL.

Over the past five years more than 100 people have been sentenced in Tatarstan for involvement in terrorist and extremist activity. However, over half of these have already served their sentences and subsequently been released. Once again, although not specified, the article clearly implies that the majority if not all of these people were Islamic extremists. As in mosques in the UK which routinely disseminate hostile views of our society and values, the authorities in Tatarstan have detected a parallel trend in which a number of mosques have been preaching a Salafist interpretation of Islam which advocates violent jihad against non-Muslims. This has prompted sweeps of mosques and the confiscation of inflammatory Islamist literature.

However, in the opinion of Vladimir Belyaev, an academic at the Russian Academy of Political Sciences, the problem of Islamic extremism in Tatarstan can be tackled effectively without necessarily deploying lethal force.

Of course, there is [Islamic] extremism in Tatarstan, but not on such a scale as is stated. The problem can be solved without the application of any kind of extraordinary measures. For example, monitoring the situation on internet sites and in mosques. This would be sufficient.

Tatarstan, like many other traditionally Muslim areas of Russia, is witnessing a growth in Islamic militancy. Although the Medvedev-Putin administration may talk tough on dealing with this phenomenon, the fact remains that Putin possesses no ideological aversion to treating with Islamists. It was Putin after all, who backed Ramzan Kadyrov as Chechen President, a man who has campaigned for the introduction of Shariah to Chechnya, who has made the wearing of the headscarf obligatory and supports polygamy. Putin is a cynic whose primary interest is personal access to power, who although willing to play with the symbols of Russian patriotism and nationhood, clearly does not possess any especial regard for non-Muslim Russians. Witness also the close links forged between Russia and Iran under Putin and Medvedev. As in the UK, if ordinary Russians are to rid their country of the Islamist menace, they shouldn’t rely upon their corrupt politicians but ought instead to organise and take to the streets demanding that Islamisation be dealt with.

The Russian Federation, like its larger predecessor the USSR, is comprised of a number of ethno-territorial entities – ‘republics’ and so on – which are not majority ethnic Russian (russkii), and twenty years ago many analysts anticipated that the fledgling Russian Federation would fragment into its constituent ethno-territorial units. This did not happen, although Chechnya of course did attempt to break away from 1991 onwards. Now, it may be in the interests of patriotic ethnic Russians to divest themselves of their problematic Islamic territories and accord them independence. A consolidated ethnic Russian (russkoe) rather than a civic Russian (rossiiskoe) state could provide a preferable political unit to the existing federation with its array of hostile Muslim states in waiting. Of course, creating a Russian ethnostate would mark a retreat from the multiethnic multifaith imperial state that Ivan the Terrible set about creating through his conquest of the Khanates of Kazan and Astrakhan in the 1550s, but then again, perhaps that would be no bad thing for the Russian people.

Kizlyar Bombings: Salafists Suspected

Bombers have struck in the town of Kizlyar in Dagestan. All together, 12 fatalities have been reported as well as 23 injured. Apparently a crowd had gathered after the first bomb had exploded, only for a suicide bomber dressed as a policeman to rush in amongst them about twenty minutes later and detonate a device. The Voice of Russia reports that the Dagestani Interior Minister (identified as Dagestan’s President by Izvestiia) – Ali Magomedov – has stated that one of the bombers has already been identified, but no further details were forthcoming.

Coming as this did so quickly upon the heels of the bombings in the Moscow Metro, people will be speculating as to whether there was a specific link between the two. It is often said that such acts have been linked primarily to the struggle of Russia’s North Caucasian republics to achieve full independence, but others point to the internationalisation of Al-Qaeda style jihadism and its particular appeal to many young Muslim males in the area. This latter position is certainly the view of Novaia gazeta’s Iuliia Latynina, who argues that the emergence of jihadi ideology in the region over the past twenty years rests upon the idea that this is Muslim land that needs to be reclaimed for the Dar al-Islam. This is why, she argues, most terrorist bombings in Russia over the past 15 years have been centred in the Northern Caucasus and adjacent regions. Salafism has taken root, and it would seem that once again it is jihadis who have wrought their terrible and pointless work in Kizlyar.