Despite the recent Russian ‘withdrawal’ from Chechnya, the Muslims still face brutality at the hands of Russia and its agents. With Allah’s سبحانه وتعالى help, the Muslims of Chechnya continue to resist these oppressors. RasulAllah صلى الله عليه وسلم explained to us that it is the Imam who is the shield for this Ummah. While the Ummah in the lands of Chechnya, Palestine, and Kashmir, resist occupation, the rest of the Ummah must re-establish this shield – the Khilafah Rashidah – in the Muslims lands on the method of RasulAllah صلى الله عليه وسلم.
Russia’s Interior Ministry initially reported on April 16th2009, that the formal counter-terrorism military program in Chechnya was completed. As reported by the Jamestown Foundation, the Russian backed President of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, held a “grandiose show out of the abolition of the counter-terrorist operation-religious ceremonies were held across the republic, celebratory demonstrations were organized to praise Putin and Kadyrov-and it was proposed that the date of the announcement be declared an annual nationwide holiday”. However, only a week later the Australian Broadcasting Company reported that Russian forces had been re-introduced into Chechnya, after three Russian soldiers were killed in the week.
Chechnya: Deep Islamic Roots
The situation in Chechnya (Sheeshan) is deeply tied to the hearts of the believers. This is not surprising as the Caucasus region (current day Chechnya, Ingushtia, Circassia, Abkhazia, Georgia and Dagestan) has deep roots in Islam. Islam was brought to the region by the Sahaba (ra). The Muslims reached the area in 22 AH, during the Khilafah of Umar bin al-Khattab (ra). The great Sahabi Abu Dujanah (ra) took part in the opening of these lands. Tiblisi, the capital of Georgia was liberated at the hand of the leader Habib bin Maslamah, under the Khilafah of Uthman Ibn Afan (ra).
The Caucasus region remained part of the lands of Islam during the times of the Umayyad and Abbasid Khilafah. However, the weakness that befell the Khilafah after the fall of Baghdad at the hands of the Tatars (Moguls) in 656 AH led to the destruction of the Islamic authority in the Caucasus at the hands of the Moguls. It is interesting to note that the very same Moguls who tortured the Muslims had eventually embraced Islam through the dawah of the Muslims living in the Caucasus. Islamic rule in the region returned soon after this occurred.
1722: The Russian Occupation Begins
The Muslims living in the Caucasus region managed, by the help of Allah سبحانه وتعالى and through the support from the Uthmani Khilafah, to stand in the face of the invading Russian armies – until the Uthmani Khilafah weakened. Thereafter, the Russians managed to defeat the Islamic resistance and thus impose their authority over the Caucasus. Russians under the leadership of Peter the great, managed to occupy part of Chechnya in 1722. Although the Muslims drove the Russians out in 1753, the war continued in cycles of victory and defeat between the Muslims and the Russians. Despite the occupation, the Islamic resistance in the entire Caucasus region continued against the Russian Czars despite the various barbaric styles of repression used by the Russians including: imposing the Christian religion on the Muslims, population transfers, torture, burning the forests and replacing the Arabic, Turkish and Persian languages with the Russian language.
Out of the Caucasus resistance, the Chechen resistance emerged as the strongest. Scholars/Ulema and Mujahideen emerged in this resistance and were able to assume successful jihadi leadership among the Chechan people. Their reputation for sacrifice was a source of sleepless nights for the successive Russian Czars.
Sheikh Mansur was one of the prominent leaders of the Chechan resistance and he led a fierce war against the Russian Czars from 1785 to 1794; calling it the Jihad. Mawlay Muhammad followed him, where he led the war against the Russian occupation from 1824 till 1832. Imam Shamil came after him and he engaged in continuous battles for nearly thirty years against the Russians from 1832 till 1859. The revolt against the Russians continued under the leadership of Umadwueve, the Tabi Adayeve movement, the Zelmayeve movement and the movement led by Ali Beg Hajji who was hanged by the Russians in Grozny in 1878.
Brutality continues under the Russian Communists
After the Communist revolution in 1917, the task of occupying was seamlessly handed from the Czars to the Communists. The oppression meted out by these Communists against the Muslims of Chechnya was worse than the oppression dealt by the Czars. They destroyed the mosques, banned religious education, imposed the Communist ideology over the people and exercised the worst forms of torture on them. For example, after World War II, Stalin transferred the entire population of Chechnya from their country to Siberia and Kazakhstan. Approximately half of the people of Chechnya, or 1.2 million people died in exile. The Chechens were allowed to return to their area in 1957.
Chechnya: Brief Independence in 1991
After the fragmentation of the Soviet Union into fifteen republics in 1991, the Caucasus region was refused independence; it remained occupied as a part of the federal republic of Russia. Chechens, under the leadership of Dzhokhar Dudayev, announced an independent state for themselves on January 11th, 1991. Russia immediately refused to recognize it and fought against them without respite. Then the Russians invaded the country in 1995, but failed in that war while suffering heavy losses. The Chechen state continued to struggle for a complete separation from Moscow. Approximately 100,000 people were killed and 240,000 wounded in the assault that took place from 1994 to 1996. In 1999, Russians succeeded in re-occupying Chechnya and annulled the announced state. Since then, the Russians have tortured and massacred the Muslims, while the nations of the world have stood by in silence.
Chechnya Today
In the Sunday Times, it was reported that Russian soldiers tortured a Muslim sister with electric shocks. After they got their information, they shot her in the head. However, instead of returning the body to the family, the Russian desecrated the dead body through a process known as “pulverization”. One of the Russians who carried out the torture told the Times: “We disposed of her body in a field. We placed an artillery shell between her legs and one over her chest, added several 200-gram TNT blocks and blew her to smithereens. The trick is to make sure absolutely nothing is left. No body, no proof, no problem.”
However, the Russians do not work alone. They rely on local traitors to do their dirty work. Chechnya is currently ruled by the Russian backed dictator Ramzan Kadyrov. He is the son of the traitor Akhmat Kadyrov – who originally fought the Russians with Dudayev – but later betrayed Islam and was made the ruler of Chechnya by Putin in 2000. Ramzan took over soon after his father’s assassination. Ramzan is notorious for his brutality, which includes kidnapping, torture and summary executions. Such treatment is not only meted against sincere Muslims, but anyone who competes with him for power.
Russia (who awarded Ramzan the highest Russian honorary title; “Hero of Russia medal”) allows Ramzan to encourage the marriage of more than one wife and wearing of the hijab. Despite the hysteria from media, such a move is understood to give the illusion that he is a sincere Muslim. The reality is that he is a loyal Russian agent who does exactly what Moscow wants him to do.
Relying on Allah سبحانه وتعالى: Key to Resisting Occupation
Despite being outnumbered, under equipped, and abandoned by the nations of the world – the Muslims of Chechnya, by the help of Allah سبحانه وتعالى, have been resisting continuously for nearly 300 years! As Allah سبحانه وتعالى revealed:
وَلاَ تَهِنُواْ فِي ابْتِغَاء الْقَوْمِ إِن تَكُونُواْ تَأْلَمُونَ فَإِنَّهُمْ يَأْلَمُونَ كَمَا تَأْلَمونَ وَتَرْجُونَ مِنَ اللّهِ مَا لاَ يَرْجُونَ وَكَانَ اللّهُ عَلِيمًا حَكِيمًا
“If you suffer pain, then surely they (too) suffer pain as you suffer pain, and you hope from Allah what they do not hope; and Allah is Knowing, Wise.” [An-Nisaa, 4:104]
By Allah’s سبحانه وتعالى leave, the Muslims of Chechnya are not just known to the Ummah for their bravery, but even the Russians have taken note of their courage. Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn, the well-known novelist who publicized his experience in the “gulags” (Russian forced labour camps), is one such person. During his imprisonment he met 150 different ethnicities. He found that the only people who did not cave in were those from Chechnya. Leo Tolstoy, (the author of War and Peace) glorified the bravery of Chechens and their love for liberation from Russia in his book “Hadji Murad”.
May Allah سبحانه وتعالى keep the Muslims of Chechnya steadfast in their resolve and grant them victory in this life and the next.
The Khilafah: The Shield of this Ummah
As we know, the disbelieving colonial powers of Russia, Britain, and France were only able to colonize the Ummah once they and their agents had destroyed the Khilafah. As discussed above, the Chechens were able to resist the Russians until the Uthmani Khilafah declined into weakness. The same thing occurred in Palestine. Khaleefah Abdul Hameed realized that without the Khilafah, the lands of Islam would have no protector, he said:
“If the Islamic Khilafah State is one day destroyed then they [the Jews] will be able to take Palestine without a price! But while I am alive, I would rather push a sword into my body than see the land of Palestine cut and given away from the Islamic State. This is something that will not be, I will not start cutting our bodies while we are alive.”
Allah سبحانه وتعالى has promised the return of the Khilafah. When He grants the Ummah victory, those resisting occupation in Chechnya and in the other parts of the world will find inshAllah in the Khilafah a staunch supporter of this Ummah that will supply them with men and equipment and will not abandon them.
Re-establishing the Khilafah: Key to helping the Ummah
It is an obligation for us to be concerned about the Ummah. While donating and making dua for our brothers and sisters in the occupied lands is indeed a sign of Iman – the most important of all obligations is that we work with the Ummah to re-establish the Khilafah Rashidah in the Muslim lands by using the Prophet’s صلى الله عليه وسلم method. This requires us to culture ourselves on the Islamic personality, create a public opinion for Islam, and call the people of power to implement Islam.
For decades the Muslim rulers – in devout loyalty to the disbelieving colonial powers – have stood idly by as the Muslims of Chechnya, Palestine, and Kashmir have been brutalized by occupation. However, these rulers and their supporters must realize that following the orders from America and Europe will not keep them safe – in this life or the next. Saddam Hussein’s loyalty to Britain did not save him, his family or Iraq. Sadly, the Muslims of Iraq now face the horrors of occupation – just as the Muslims do in Chechnya.
We must work, with the help of Allah سبحانه وتعالى, to convince the people of power to replace the rulers with one who will fear Allah سبحانه وتعالى and rule by what Allah سبحانه وتعالى revealed. The alternative is to be humiliated in this life and the next.
إِن يَثْقَفُوكُمْ يَكُونُوا لَكُمْ أَعْدَاء وَيَبْسُطُوا إِلَيْكُمْ أَيْدِيَهُمْ وَأَلْسِنَتَهُم بِالسُّوءِ وَوَدُّوا لَوْ تَكْفُرُونَ