Facing up to the Islamist Challenge

Our traditional understanding of Muslim communities assumes that when Islam arrives in an area, it becomes deeply rooted in the population and culture, producing powerful local variations. A Muslim community in the United Arab Emirates is very different from one in Nigeria, and both are very different from Islam in Indonesia. Recent developments in Russia, however, constitute a stark challenge to this understanding - which explains President Vladimir Putin's bold decision to support the US-led war on terrorism following the September 11 th attacks.

The scenario is the same within Muslim communities throughout Russia. Young activists arrive in a particular area, typically from Arab countries. They know how to work with local law enforcement agencies, and initially their activities are limited to gathering information aimed at discrediting the current local religious leaders - whose average age is over 70 - and working skillfully with local media to ensure that this defamatory information is publicized. The religious community then convenes, removes its old leaders, with the young challengers taking over.

The new leaders proceed on the assumption that they need not - and indeed should not - adapt to national or cultural distinctions among Muslims, for their goal is Islamic unification, not differentiation. They send their most promising local supporters abroad - not necessarily to Arab countries, but also to France, England, and the US - to be trained to carry out the same work, whether it is in the Volga region (home to 40% of Russia's Muslims) or elsewhere. Participation in these networks convinces new recruits that they are part of a globally integrated organization.

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