Rights defenders state radicalization threat of Salafists under power agents' pressure

Along with the reduction in the number of terror acts in 2015, Northern Caucasus saw increased pressure by power agents of Salafists, which may result in radicalization of large groups of believers. Attempts to close Salafi mosques in Dagestan or put them under full control of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims (SAM) will lead to Salafis' ousting out of legal sphere, said the rights defenders, interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot".

Northern Caucasus has seen a decrease in the number of terror acts, said Alexander Brod, a member of the Human Rights Council under Russian President and the head of the Moscow Human Rights Bureau. According to his story, this is due to an increase in the number of counterterrorism measures. Along with that, "the problem of recruiting young people into the 'Islamic State' (IS) banned in Russia remains topical."

In 2015, rights defenders' greatest concerns were the processes in Dagestan, related to changes in policy regarding the participation of Russian citizens in conflicts in Iraq and Syria, notes Ekaterina Sokiryanskaya, the director of the project for Northern Caucasus of the International Crisis Group (ICG).

She said that 2015 was notable in Dagestan by mass detentions of mosque-goers throughout the republic; in her opinion, one of the main events in 2015 was the conflict around the mosque in Makhachkala, Kotrov Street, and the closing of a number of other mosques.

(Addition of 6:00 p.m. of January I, 2016) In 2015, we also saw an increased pressure of the authorities on Salafists in Chechnya, as earlier reported the rights defenders, interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot".

As noted by Oleg Orlov, a member of the board of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", the above pressure was not only on the supporters of this trend of Islam, who support terrorists, but on the whole community.

The Chechen authorities are increasingly promoting the Sufi Islam; and local young people look at Salafists as at other sort of Muslims, the expert Varvara Pakhomenko has added.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.