Russia deals with rise in terrorism linked to Syria, Mideast
Fresh terror attacks have made Russia more concerned about the threat of Islamic terrorism and have shaped the country's policy in the Middle East.
The growing number of terrorist acts committed in Russia by members of radical Islamist groups and transnational terrorist networks, heated conflicts between the bulk of followers of traditional Russian Islam and the few but active adherents of Salafism and the involvement of jihadists from Russia and the neighboring CIS republics in the Syrian civil war have all exacerbated the problem of Islamic extremism and terrorism for Moscow.
Within this Russian domestic problem, we can identify several dimensions that link it with the Near East:
First is the role of missionaries from Arab countries in disseminating radical ideas among Russian Muslims through the education system. Traditionally, Muslims in Russia who belong to Turkic ethnic groups (including the most populous group, the Tatars) practice Sunni Islam of the Hanafite school, and those living in the Caucasus Mountains practice Sunni Islam of the Shafiite school. A large number of Muslims also follow Sufi orders — Naqshbandi, Qadiri and others. When the Islamic revival began in Russia in the early 1990s, Arab preachers and teachers began coming to the country, and according to the memoirs of Ildus Fayzov, the former mufti of Tatarstan, local Muslims looked at them "almost as if they were looking at the Prophet himself." Those from outside started trying to introduce local Muslims to "pure Islam."
In 1993, the Saudi organization Taibah reached an agreement with the Yoldyz madrassa in Naberezhnye Chelny, the second-largest city in Tatarstan, under which the Saudis would provide educational assistance. This educational institution soon turned into a center for training radicals, some of whom fought in the Chechen war as part of jihadist militant groups and organized terrorist acts in Moscow. It was reported in the Russian media that the Taibah branch in Tatarstan was run by Isa Shebahat, a Jordanian citizen. In Tatarstan, a representative of the same organization, Algerian citizen Bu Setta Abd ar-Razzak taught at the Muhammadiya madrassa in 1994-1997 and sent young people to study at religious educational institutions in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. This organization was banned in Russia.
