The influence of Wahhabism on the socio-political situation in Ukraine
Of greatest interest to supporters of radical extremist organizations in Ukraine is the Crimea, which has a variegated ethno-confessional composition.After gaining 24 in August of 1991, Ukraine’s independence from the USSR began an intensive revival of the national and religious traditions of not only Ukrainians, but also of other peoples inhabiting the republic, including the peoples professing Islam. The first Muslim communities in Ukraine began to revive in the early 1990-ies. They acted mainly under the control of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the European part of the USSR and Siberia, whose jurisdiction included the Muslims of Ukraine. Communities were registered in many large cities of Ukraine - Kharkov, Zaporozhye, Dnepropetrovsk, Nikolaev, Odessa, Lvov.
In the work of the youth camp, the principle of a certain selection of participants in the work of the camp can be seen. Such a method is widely used in the stepwise structure of attracting members by the Muslim Brotherhood organization.
The first Islamic community in Kiev was formed in 1991 in the Shevchenko district. 14 August 1992 by the decision of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the European part of the USSR and Siberia, the Main Muhtasibat Department of Muslims of Ukraine was founded. Imam-Muhtasib was appointed Sheikh Ahmed Tamim, invited by the community to promote the study of Islam and founded the first school in Kiev to study the basics of this religion in 1991 year. From 27 September 1993, the organization became known as the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Ukraine (DUMU), whose main goal was the unification of Muslims and the teaching of religious knowledge. 11 May 1993 was opened first in stories Ukraine's Muslim educational institution - Kiev Islamic University.
However, in the same period, ideas of Wahhabism and other extremist movements began to penetrate into Ukraine, as well as into Russia. In addition to officially registered religious communities, public organizations, national-cultural and Islamic cultural societies began to emerge, which began to spread the ideology of the radical extremist parties, the Muslim Brotherhood and Hizb-at-Tahrir.
In the middle of the 1990-s in Ukraine, a number of organizations of foreign students appeared, targeting the Muslim Brotherhood Party, which began to actively intervene in the internal affairs of Islamic communities.
After the registration of primary organizations at the beginning of 1997 (February 7), the interregional association of public organizations “Arraid” (“Leader”) was officially registered in Ukraine, bringing together all public organizations of foreign students under its auspices. "Arraid" headed by Muaz Abu Obeid, who was later denied entry to Ukraine.
It should be noted that representatives of this organization had been operating illegally in Ukraine for several years before official registration. One of the documents of the organization in the year of education states that the association expresses gratitude to the participants of the fourth camp of Islamic youth, which took place in 1997 in the village of Simeiz. The letterhead is signed by Muaz Abu Obeid, and the address indicated on it is from one of the member organizations of the World Association of Islamic Youth (WAMY), which actively promotes Wahhabi ideology throughout the world, despite the fact that its activities are banned in many countries of the world. WAMY headquarters is located in one of the suburbs of Washington. The president and treasurer of the organization is one of the relatives of the late Osama bin Laden, Abdullah, who is a part of the world's financial elite.
In the summer of 1997, in the Crimea, “Arraid” organized a seminar, two youth camps and an “education caravan”. Under such a name, 11 groups with a propaganda program were sent to different cities of Crimea. In addition to representatives of the Crimea, residents of Donetsk, Zaporozhye, Kiev, Odessa, and Kharkov took part in the work of the camp. The curriculum included lectures, debates, watching videos. All activities were carried out with the knowledge and approval of the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Crimea.
In addition to the Crimea, in July 1997, Arraid also held the seventh annual camp in Irpin for foreign students. Isam al-Bashir and Faisal Mawlyawi took part in its work. The latter is one of the leaders of the well-known radical extremist organization "Muslim Brotherhood." He was invited by the association "Arraid" and in 1998 year to the first International round table "Muslim minority between theory and practice", which took place on October 16-17 in Kiev.
In the summer of 1998 of the year, from 8 to 15 in July, the next youth camp in Simeiz was held by the association “Arraid”. In addition to religious issues, the role of Muslims in modern society was touched upon, and the need for more active participation in the cultural, social and political life of the country was stressed. According to some participants, the training was conducted according to the book of the ideologist of the Dagestan Wahhabis Bagautdin Muhammad Namaz. On the territory of Ukraine, this book was published in Odessa by the organization Al-Masar, which is part of Arraida. 25-26 July 1998 was held the solemn opening ceremony of three new mosques in the Crimea (Spring, Spills, Stroganovka). The official ceremony was attended by Saad Eddin El-Labban, director of the International Corporation for Development and the Zam Zam charity foundation, who suddenly left Russia after the bombings of houses in Moscow and Volgodonsk in 1999.
At the end of 1998, the Arraid newspaper began to appear in Russian and Arabic. The newspapers contain materials from Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the head of this organization, who is known for his calls for Russian Muslims to boycott the presidential elections in Russia. Also in the newspaper are references to Ibn Taymiyah and articles by Khavva Amagova, propagandizing the ideology of Wahhabism, are printed.
In order to more actively introduce its ideology through the use of the national factor, the association “Arraid” began to establish cooperation with cultural-national centers. So, in 1999, contacts were established with the cultural and ethnographic center "Alushta". From now on, classes began to be held there that taught Nadzhie Murtazaev from Simferopol and Feyruze Hatip from Alushta. They distributed the newspapers "Arraid" and "Al-Bayan" and literature published by the well-known pro-Wahhabi foundation Zam-Zam and WAMY. With the support of Feyruz Hatip, the youth of Alushta attended classes in the Simferopol unit of Arraida, the organization Ahrar, and she, in turn, held seminars in Alushta, and the influence of the organization spread to the entire Alushta region. In 2002, Feyruse Hatip was the deputy director of the camp held by Arraid in Simeiz.
To attract new supporters into their ranks, Provah-Habit organizations held charity events, actively using religious events and holidays. For example, at the beginning of 1999 of the year, in the month of Ramadan, the members of “Arraida” - students of the residency of the Simferopol Medical Institute - conducted iftars in 40 locations in Crimea. At each of the events attended from 30 to 300 people. Iftar were also conducted by the Zam Zam Foundation. They were held in Saki, Sudak, in the villages of Plotinoye and Krasny Mak in the Bakhchisaray district, as well as in Molodezhniy, Stroganovka, Rodnikovoy, Andrusovo, Simferopol Kebir-Jami mosque.
28 March 1999 was organized by Kurban-Bairam celebration by the Arraid Association and the Ukrainian branch of the Zam-Zam Russian Charitable Foundation. In Crimea, festive events were organized by the Ahrar Society. In addition, the Birlik (Unity) and Crimea 2000 funds were active in the Crimea.
At the end of March 1999, the Ukrainian Department of Justice at the Zah-Zam International Charitable Foundation was officially registered with the Kyiv Justice Department. The organization was headed by Yasir al-Hassan, who previously headed the Bushra Foundation and was associated with the SAAR Foundation. This organization became the official sponsor of the newspaper Al-Bayan.
In the summer of 1999, several camps were also organized, organized by Wahhabis to attract young people to their ranks. In early July, the camp was organized in the Bakhchsarai region of Crimea at the camp site "Prival". The teachers in this camp were immigrants from Saudi Arabia.
At the beginning of 2000, the negative activity of “Arraida” was noticed by the state authorities of Ukraine. 17 April, the chairman of the organization was not allowed to enter Ukraine after another trip abroad. Here's how he talks about the current situation: “This story began on February 2000 of the year ... The authorities refused to renew the registration of my wife and children. After persistent appeals to the relevant authorities, the registration was extended only by a month. In early March, I left for Egypt and flew back two weeks later. However, after a two-hour wait at the Boryspil airport, a border guard officer said that my entry into Ukraine was restricted. Apparently, the motive of this decision is incitement of hostility between representatives of different cultures and nationalities. ”
Despite this, the association "Arraid" continued its work. From 28 June to 23 July 2000 of the year in Simeiz “Arraid” was held the next (seventh) camp for women, youths and children. Not only citizens of Ukraine, but also other CIS countries (Russia) took part in its work. 68 rested in the children's shift. The camp director was Muhammad Abu Armiz. Unlike 1999, the teachers were mainly residents of Ukraine. According to the organizers, in the future they should be in charge of such events. If earlier anyone could take part in the work of the camp, then since 2000, a certain selection criterion has been established. Young people from 16 to 25 years with basic religious knowledge are admitted to the youth camp. Here the principle of a certain selection of participants in the work of the camp is already visible. Such a method is widely used in the stepwise structure of attracting members by the Muslim Brotherhood organization.
30 July 2000 about the camp in Simeiz was shown a report by NTV journalists. Particular emphasis was placed on the fact that in Simeiz teach the ideology of Wahhabism, and the leader of the Crimean Wahhabis was named Muhammad Muhsin. This information caused a great resonance on the peninsula. On this occasion, the Initium League of Crimean Tatar lawyers and the Crimea-2000 Foundation convened a press conference, during which it was said that there was no ground in the Crimea for the spread of Wahhabism. The report shown on NTV caused a negative reaction from the League of Crimean Tatar lawyers "Initium" and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), with the assistance of which the organization was formed. When asked by the journalist of the Crimean Time, Alexander Mashchenko, about extremist literature, the head of the Crimea-2000 foundation Kubeddin Kubeddinov said that he had never seen such books. But Muhsin Muhammad did not answer the question of what Wahhabism is. Except for the phrase that Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab was an "outstanding scientist."
In support of Wahhabism’s supporter Mukhsin Muhammad and his ideology, the Voice of Crimea and Kyrym newspapers also spoke. On the pages of the newspaper “Kyrym”, in particular, it says: “The ultimate goal of Wahhabism in Crimea, as presented by some forces, is a state reorganization and re-creation of a caliphate. How does this correspond to reality? Comparing the situation in Crimea with the situation in Chechnya 1993-1995 either is absurd or evil intent. ” It should be recalled that similar statements were made in Dagestan on the eve of the invasion of supporters of Wahhabism from Chechnya. Regarding the NTV report to the General Consulate of Russia, Prime Minister of Crimea Sergey Kunitsyn also expressed his bewilderment. He called the information of journalists a clear lie. His point of view was supported by the SBU.
As of 2002, the year in Ukraine had a whole network of student organizations, linking to Arraide. These include Al-Nur in Kiev, Al-Isra in Vinnitsa, Al-Masar in Odessa, Al-Manar in Kharkov, Al-Amal in Donetsk, Akhrar in Simferopol, Al -Bayan "in Lugansk," Al-Nibras "in Lviv," Al-Fajr "in Zaporozhye," Al-Huda "(True Way) in Poltava," Al-Mustaqbal "in Dnepropetrovsk. There are a number of women's clubs in Kiev, Donetsk and Simferopol. All these organizations continue to spread the ideology of Wahhabism in Ukraine.
Ukraine has also begun to attempt to open a network of Islamic cultural centers throughout the country. One of these organizations appeared in Kherson. Her activities caused discontent among Muslims in the region. At a community meeting held on 10 on April 1994, in particular, it was said: “For Muslims, the appearance of ICC was a complete surprise. The statute of the ICC was not communicated to the Muslim community. To the question to the ICC Chairman D. Faizov: is your ICC registered? - the answer was negative. It was noteworthy that this organization received fundamentalist literature and distributed it among the Muslims of Kherson. At this meeting, a unanimous decision was made to petition the city administration to ban the registration of the center under the direction of D. Ya. Faizov. Since the middle of the 1990-ies existed and the regional Cultural Center of Islam in Donetsk, which led active religious activities, in particular contributed to the publication of the literature of the organization "Muslim Brotherhood." However, according to documents of the Department of Religious Affairs of the Donetsk Regional Administration, the classes conducted by the organization were not religious, therefore, the organization could not be attributed to those.
The cultural center in Donetsk represented in Ukraine the interests of the Islamic Congress of Russia. Representatives of this organization imported into Ukraine and distributed the provahhabits literature of the Islamic Congress of Russia, which in particular was sent to state libraries. The Islamic Cultural Center in Donetsk also established close relations with the Al-Bushra Association and assisted in the distribution of the Al-Bayan newspaper, which is one of the first media outlets in Ukraine that spread the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood party. In the newspaper, in particular, articles were published and references were made to such religious and political figures as Abu Ala al-Maududi, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, Huram Murad, Mukaddas Bibarsov, Abdurrahman Tahir (head of the SAAR Fundayshin Foundation). The latter on the pages of the newspaper praises the ideological predecessor of Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, Ibn Taimiy and one of the ideologists of the extremist organization "Muslim Brotherhood" Abu Alya al-Maududi.
In Kiev, the Islamic Cultural Center actively cooperated with the SAAR Foundationishin organization. With the assistance of this organization, Arabic language courses were opened in the cultural center, and a number of mosques in the Crimea were built (Pionerskoye, Dubki, Rodnikovoye, Stroganovka, Simferopol). With the support of SAAR Foundation, the Shafakat Foundation (Compassion) also began to operate. However, the most interesting fact is that this organization, which has its head office in the US state of Virginia, was most interested in the economic situation of Ukraine. In one of the letters sent to the Kherson region, the head of the organization was interested in the economic situation of the region (the state of industry, agriculture, livestock, etc.). In 1995, the organization suddenly ceased to exist.
It should be noted that the most interesting for supporters of radical extremist organizations in Ukraine is the Crimea, which has a motley ethno-confessional composition. Independent Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Crimea operates on the peninsula. It was formed in 1992 from an organization that was previously subordinate to DUMES (Russia). The separation took place, despite the fact that the 6th extraordinary congress of DUMES decided to preserve the unity of the organization and not to allow division along regional and national lines. One of the letters of Talgat Tadzhutdin addressed the chairman of the Council for Religious Affairs under the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on this issue: “The central body for coordination and spiritual guidance of Muslim parishes in Ukraine is the Main Mukhtasibat administration headed by Imam Muhtasib Sheikh Ahmed Tamim. The question of the separation of the Muslim parishes of Crimea by the communities of this region was not raised. Documents about the separation of Kazyyat Crimea from DUMES have been reported. Taking into account the decision of the VI extraordinary congress, I ask you to deal only with the Main Mukhtasibat Muslim Board of Ukraine when registering communities and centers in Ukraine. ”
Attracting profitable economic contracts is one of the methods by which Wahhabis spread their influence on the government of a country.
Separately, about the situation in the Crimea. The third stage of the spread of Wahhabism in Crimea began at the beginning of the 90 of the year. The religious department of the Muslims of Crimea was then headed by Saeed Jalil Ibrahimov, who was educated in Saudi Arabia and maintained close relations with the Wahhabis of Russia. The fourth stage began in the middle of 90's. Then several political organizations with Islamic names were formed. During this period, there was a latent exacerbation of interethnic relations, periodically resulting in minor conflicts (1993-2000). At first it was purely nationalistic. Wahhabi factor began to join him later. Here you can draw some analogy with the events that took place in this period in the North Caucasus, where Wahhabis actively used the ethnic factor to achieve their goals - the desire of individual ethnic groups in the region to become state independent. It should be noted that appeals to revise the status of the Crimea have not abated until now.
In the last decade of the last century, the books of Bagautdin Muhammad, Fathi Yakan, Abu Ala al Mawudi, Said Qutb, Moscow literature of the Wahhabi publishing house Badr, the Ibrahim al-Ibrahim fund and the Satland cooperative were distributed in Crimea. We will dwell on some publications. In the book Namaz, published in Pakistan, an unknown author urges believers not to obey the state and make a revolution: “If we obey a state on earth, that state must be Muslim. If these qualities are not characteristic of the state, then it is no longer your state, and you should not submit to such a state. ” In addition, the books of the modern ideologist of Wahhabism Muhammad ibn Jamil Zina, in particular, “Pillars of Islam and the Faith” and “Islamic Aqydah”, were distributed in Crimea.
In general, since 1994-1998 in the Crimea, the Wahhabi ideology was actively disseminated. Indeed, as political scientist Rustem Dzhanguzhin and Archpriest Alexander Kubelius note, the authors of a fundamental study on the influence of the Islamic factor on the internal political life of Ukraine, “Saudi Arabia, which is the birthplace of Wahhabism, was interested in the fate of the Crimean Tatars. It provides assistance in training clergymen, finances educational projects. ” And who pays, he orders the music. As Mikhail Gonchar, vice president of the Strategy-1 Foundation, said in an interview with UNIAN, despite the fact that now the activities of Islamic fundamentalist centers in Crimea do not have dangerous proportions, it carries a potential long-term threat. According to him, we are talking about Wahhabi preachers, who have several hundred supporters. They are engaged in the preaching work, spreading special literature among the Crimean Tatars. To gain credibility among the Muslim public, they provide funds for the construction of mosques. The potential danger lies in the attraction to this stream of the part of the Crimean Tatar youth, which does not have a permanent job and lives with a load of unsolved social problems.
According to Oguz Cetinoglu, a correspondent for the Turkish magazine “Kalgai”, who had been on the peninsula more than once, groups of Wahhabi missionaries visited Crimea and held meetings in cities and towns of the peninsula where they promoted their ideology and distributed brochures and books. Also, supporters of this political trend in a number of villages began to build mosques, but construction work deliberately slowed down the construction, demanding that the residents join the Wahhabis.
According to Cetinoglu, supporters of Wahhabism sought to undermine the authority of Islamic religious leaders who did not succumb to the influence of their ideology. For this, as in the North Caucasus, the financial method and influence on local authorities was actively used. Thanks to the connections in the police bodies, they also force the Crimean Tatars who have problems with the law to join their ranks, promising a solution to the problems that have arisen. According to the author, the influence of the Wahhabis in the government is more applicable to the Russians than to the Crimean Tatars. In some areas of the Crimea, where the supporters of this religious-political movement carried out the most active work, there was a split of Islamic communities.
The spread of Wahhabism also had a negative impact on family relations, leading to confrontation between individual relatives. Mayor of Bakhchisarai Vitaly Kurbatov is also familiar with Wahhabis firsthand. “I know several representatives of the Wahhabi current in the city,” he said. - They pull up children to themselves, talk about their faith, but behave peacefully and calmly. As long as they stand on peaceful rails - up to a certain point. Everything has its time".
It seems that the supporters of Wahhabism in Crimea well mastered modern PR technologies and are seriously worried about their own image. The editor-in-chief of one of the most popular and popular Crimean newspapers told how representatives of radical Islamists offered her to meet, so that readers could get a more complete picture of Wahhabism. “They turned out to be calm, educated, very well prepared to talk to people,” says the editor. “I realized that I simply didn’t have enough knowledge to lead a discussion at the high intellectual level set by them.”
As of the 2001 year in the Crimea, there were about 300 activists of the Wahhabi movement, whose average age is 30-45 years. They were 30 cells in different locations of the Crimea. Between themselves, the cells were rarely connected, all directly closed on foreign representatives. It has also been reported that some of the religious communities are already legally controlled by Wahhabi emissaries from Arab countries. Today, presumably, the number of Wahhabi activists has increased significantly, as well as the complexity of the network they have created.
At the beginning of 2000, the task of overseas Wahhabi preachers was to distribute literature and to attract to their side as many supporters as possible. At the same time, people who were able to recruit supporters were selected in different districts of Crimea. New arrivals were paid up to 100 dollars per month, subject to the involvement of new people in turn. The most capable were sent to study in Saudi Arabia.
The control over the work carried out was also carried out by foreigners. After their next visit to the Crimea, the following reports appeared: “During the summer in the Crimea, a group of Arab students worked in 20 settlements. Processed 120 Crimean Tatar families. The goal is to engage in the propaganda of Wahhabism. The same year, 1017 Arab students visited Crimea. The purpose of the dissemination of religious literature and ideas of Wahhabism. "
Given the emergence and weakness of Islamic institutions in the Crimea, Wahhabism can quickly prevail over other areas of Islam — many analysts predict this development. In the meantime, it is clear that the situation is getting out of control of both state bodies and the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people.
Considering the above facts, we can draw the following conclusions. As in Russia, from the end of 80-s - the beginning of 90-s in Ukraine gradually, but with each passing year, Wahhabism and the Muslim Brotherhood ideology began to spread more and more actively. All this was done and is being done under the cover of Islam.
In the middle of the 1990s, Ukraine was already at the second of the stages of the spread of Wahhabism - there was an active recruitment of supporters in Muslim communities. Particular attention was paid to young people, to attract which they began to organize summer camps. At the same time, the third stage was also carried out - the desire to lead the community, to appoint its people as imams. All this led to the formation of independent communities, which then formed a separate Spiritual Administration (DCMU). The underground organizations were legalized. For a more successful activity, Wahhabis registered various cultural centers (Islamic, national), foundations, and firms. In fact, several legal entities represented the same people. Some of these organizations actively collected strategic information about Ukraine. Relationships were established with Al-Jamaat al-Islamiyah, WAMY, Zam-Zam and Ibrahim al-Ibrahim foundations.
Since the end of 1997, Ukraine is already at the fourth stage of the spread of Wahhabism. Having established the organizational structures and received material support from abroad, supporters of Wahhabism registered a political organization, and from 2000, one can say, the last stage of the fourth stage began. After the deportation of Muaz Abu Obeid, the public organization “Arraid”, the question of relations between Ukraine and the organization “Arraid” was sharply raised, a number of demands were made of the state, and, moreover, Ukraine’s leadership was intimidated by the loss of profitable economic contracts in the Gulf countries.
By the way, attracting profitable economic contracts is one of the methods by which the Wahhabis spread their influence on the government of this or that country.
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