Chechen sufis and their ways

Submitted by Ianus (Poland), Jul 27, 2007 at 19:09

Dear Chris, you write :

> By the way, the real brutality in the Chechen conflict didn't begin until Wahhabi mujahadin started flooding into Chechnya. When Chechnya had its own government with moderate Muslim leaders, it was quickly overthrown by armed Wahhabi Chechen warlords. The Saudis poured hundreds of millions of dollars into Chechnya.

The Chechens are sufis, your beloved peace-loving "moderates" . But you seem to be comepletely ignorant both of their history and ethnic character. Among the Caucasian tribes the Chechens have always been the most bloodthirsty, revengeful and dreaded tribesmen. The worst offence is to say to a Chechen "You're not a man". And for them none is a man who hasn't cut the throat of someone outside his teyp (clan). None of their neighbors on the Caucasus was left unmolested by their never-ending kiddnappings, murders, armed assaults, robberies. The Russians were the first to put an end to that. ( Note : the Ingush - a cognate Vaynakh tribe didn't participate in the wars against the Russians at that time). It was their traditional way of life - fully compatible with their sufi worldview. You should see their wild zirk dances.

During the advace of Nazi troops towards Grozny in the autumn of 1942 the Chechens defected to the Nazis en masse. Their slogan was "Hitler with us and Allah above us!"

There are all too many documents and eyewitness and official evidence of their savagery long before the Saudis and Turks and other Mujahedeens appeared on the scene that I have the suspicion that your authoritative "explanation" - as most arguments you put forth - comes from your Muslim friends. No doubt , you honestly tried to brainwash them into "moderate Islam" but in the process you didn't notice that you yourself had been brainwashed by them to speak the way a true Moslem does.

To show you're wrong on Chechnya , just one example from the story told by a Russian officer who served in Grozny since September 1991 to the summer of 1992. (If you wish I can give you details , although they are in Russian) . There was a Soviet military settlement in the city. Officers and their families lived there. There was one lieutenent who used to go out with his wife. this time - in September 1991- he stayed for some time in the common dining room. She went out alone and simply disappeared. No one could find her . After a few days she was found ... in a sack thrown in front of the main gate to the settlement ... cut into pieces by the local Chechens. Such things happened more and more often. The next victim was a captain. He was found after some days in a swamp in the vicinity of Grozny.

The Chechens bound his hands and his legs, cut off his penis and put it into his mouth. They scratched out his eyes as well. More and more Chechens from the mountains came down to Grozny and more and more brutal crimes were perpetrated daily. The Chechens came in throngs to the settlement and seeing Russian families leaving used to shout and grin : " Russians, don't leave! We need you as slaves and your wives and daughters as prostitutes!"

Young Russians were shot and killed by broad daylight with machine guns by Chechens who didn't try to hide their identity . Beatings and robberies of Russian passers-by were daily occurences. Soon kiddpnappings became the favorite pastime of the Chechens. Those unable to pay ransoms were beheaded and their heads often tossed out before their homes. Their skeletons are still found across Chechnya nowadays. Kidnappings - traditional Chechen practice- became so profitable that highest officials were involved in it. In 1997 there were around 4000 kidnapped people in Chechnya held in concentration camps. It became a booming "industry".

The highest Chechen "statesmen" stood behind its organization . The vice-president Vakha Arsanov was the mastermind of the kidnappings. Aslan Maskhadov the then president of Chechnya , Jokhar Dudayev's nephew Letchi Dudayev and almost all commanders and officials in the of this criminal regime participated in it. A slave market was established in Grozny at the Old Square "Tryokh Geroyev". The cheapest were the captive Russian soldiers as they were not expected to live long. In 1997 there were at least c. 700 Russian slaves - captive soldiers abd officers.

There are plenty of materials on that sickening side of this Moslem genocidal social experiment conducted in Chechnya between 1991-2000. The documents come from very different sources and people. In those years I used to follow the developments in Chechnya as carefully as i could and I often listened to people who were there before and during that time. To blame the wahhabis for the sufi Chechens' crimes is not serious , to put it mildly.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".