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#10 - JRL 6537
BBC Monitoring
Russian Muslim regions "hotbed of radical
Islam", TV reports
Source: NTV Mir, Moscow, in Russian 1600 gmt 1 Nov 02
The ideas of radical Islam are being spread among Russia's youth by Muslim clerics from abroad, Russian TV has said. In its report on one seminar in the Urals, "boys as young as 10-12 are taught to wage armed struggle in the name of Allah", the Russian external TV service NTV Mir said. The following is the text of the report, broadcast on 1 November:
[Presenter] The propaganda of radical Islam is increasingly widespread in its geography. In the Urals, boys as young as 10-12 are taught to wage armed struggle in the name of Allah by instructors from Saudi Arabia who preach the fundamentals of Wahhabism. Here is a report by our own correspondent in Yekaterinburg, Viktor Kuzmin:
[Correspondent] Four months ago, more than a hundred young men from various regions of Russia arrived in the small town of Pervouralsk for a seminar organized by the clerical board of Muslims in the Asian part of Russia. To instruct them in all matters religious came people all the way from Saudi Arabia.
The event, at which the young people were thrust into close contact with the Saudi clerics, lasted a fortnight. It was a busy schedule, with prayers, studies of the Koran and physical fitness exercises interrupted only by short meal breaks and a night's sleep, and with all tuition based on books the instructors had brought with them.
One is a course of study in sharia disciplines, published by the Saudi foundation of Ibrahim bin Abdul Aziz il-Ibrahim. It was only later that experts who examined it at the initiative of the FSB [Russia's Federal Security Service] found out exactly what formed the basis of the writing.
This is a quote: Armed struggle in the name of Allah, for his word to be above all else. Another: Sacrifice your life in witness of Allah's religion, unquote.
And this is what, after a while, the seminar's organizers wrote in their report on the work they had done: In its last paragraph, the document states that the main task of the seminar was to select candidates for further instruction at Saudi universities, and to raise the level of Islamic awareness.
[FSB operative, unnamed, with his voice distorted and his back to the camera] Judging by the behaviour of those who come back after studying in Saudi Arabia, most of them are fanatics ready for anything, completely ready for anything, including - we cannot rule it out - unlawful acts.
[Correspondent] According to operational information of the security service in the Urals, Sverdlovsk Region has begun to be frequented by religious emissaries from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Turkey, Tajikistan and Azerbaijan. It is a fact that they are actively involved with organizations of extremist orientation.
This is operational footage of a search in a flat rented by Tajik clerics, where materials published by Saudi charities were found.
This is a classroom at a mosque in Yekaterinburg, part of the so-called Middle Urals Kaziat [Muslim community]. On the desks of its students are the same books. Any attempt to talk to young people is immediately blocked by their mentors.
It is this religious education establishment that was visited by the secretary-general of the Muslim World League, Dr Abdullah bin Abdulmohsen Al Turki. As he briefly met believers, the guest from Mecca said that there was every opportunity for the development of Islam here, which should be taken advantage of.
Officially, the visit of the secretary-general of the Muslim World League to Sverdlovsk Region has been presented by his adherents as his introduction to the region's Muslims. His clerical opponents, who represent Islam's alternative organizations, think otherwise.
[Mufti Khazrat Sibgatulla-Khodzhi, captioned as chairman of the clerical board of Muslims in Sverdlovsk Region] We can see that, indeed, the propaganda of radical Islam is under way. The territory that is fundamental to the state, so to speak, is turning into a hotbed of radical Islam.
[Correspondent] The eminent guest from Saudi Arabia was not received by officials in any of the adjacent regions. Nor was he seen by Tatarstan's president. In Yekaterinburg, the office of the presidential plenipotentiary representative in the Urals Federal District also declined to meet him. Conversely, the gubernatorial authority of Sverdlovsk Region was active in its contacts with him. Although the governor himself was not involved, the man was nonetheless met by officials of not the lowest rank.
As an aside, not one of the criminal cases that the FSB's regional administration forwarded to the prosecutor's office in Sverdlovsk Region in relation to the distribution of materials of an extremist nature has resulted in criminal proceedings. Meanwhile, books from the curriculum of sharia disciplines can be freely bought in dedicated outlets.
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