Painting All Muslims With a Broad Brush

By Yulia Latynina On behalf of all Muslims living in Russia, Geidar Dzhemal, head of the Islamic Committee of Russia, has called for an end to the persecution of Muslims in the country. Otherwise, he warned, Russia will lose the Caucasus. It is untrue, however, that Muslims are persecuted in Russia, much less in the Caucasus. Visit a Friday service in any of the hundreds of mosques in Makhachkala, for example, and you will see thousands of people praying freely. The persecution is directed at those who profess Wahhabism. It is also untrue that you can’t distinguish Wahhabis from Sufi Muslims, the traditional branch of Islam in the Caucasus. It is just as easy to find the difference between these branches of Islam as you can between Catholics and Protestants. Ask a Muslim how many raka’ah — a set of 11 ritual procedures when... [read full story]