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Pro-Moscow Chechen Clerics Declare Jihad On Wahhabis

August 04, 2005

Ramzan Kadyrov at his father's funeral last year

Ramzan Kadyrov at his father's funeral last year

4 August 2005 -- Chechnya's pro-Moscow Muslim clerics today declared a jihad against Wahhabite Islam.

Ramzan Kadyrov, son of an assassinated Chechen president, said the decision was unanimously adopted and added that Wahhabis would "bring nothing but harm to the people and to Islam."

In televised comments Kadyrov vowed to "destroy" Wahhabis and said: "we have a place where we can bury them -- three meters down."

The term "Wahhabi" was used in Soviet times and is still used by some Russian officials today as meaning an antigovernment Muslim.

There have been claims that real Wahhabis, Arabs practicing the extremely orthodox form of Islam recognized in Saudi Arabia, have fought alongside separatists in Chechnya. Chechens traditionally follow a Sufi form of Islam.

(Reuters)
 
 
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